First Love
by VrtraHex
Summary: There are always first's in life...first betrayal, a first kiss, or even a first love. Looking back on such things, its never about where you are now, but how you got there and the people who helped you. Even if they are mean as hell. NaruTay UPDATED!
1. First Meeting, First Lunch

I don't own Naruto.

It's actually really funny how I got inspiration for this fic. I saw this amazing picture of Tayuya where she was smiling, and I couldn't describe how entranced I was. She looked so happy, and I felt like putting that look on paper. In all honesty, that is the single reason behind this fic. This was until I heard the song Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden. That's where I got the other part of my inspiration. The song will play a slight role in the final chapter, when I get there. Or I could just write the final chapter before I finish, as a goal to say, "I know I'll get there someday" as JK Rowling said.

A key thing to note is I used mostly the English spelling of names, so if they look a little weird, sorry. I might change depending on what you guys think.

_Flashback_

Present

'_Flashback Thoughts'_

'Present Thoughts'

**Chapter One- First Meeting, First Lunch**

Sunlight crept into Naruto's bedroom, causing him to wake up from his very peaceful slumber. Sitting up on the bed, he cleared his long blonde hair from his eyes and looked at the time. It was 11:00 AM. Naruto slowly turned his head to look at the calendar that hung on the wall of his bedroom. It was the 19th.

"Wait…the 19th?" he said to himself. The gears in his head slowly started turning until it finally clicked. "Shit! I need to be at the wedding today!" Naruto literally leapt from his bed onto the floor and ran out into the kitchen like a speeding bullet. He did not notice the other occupant of the room.

"Ah, so you finally decided to wake up? I was getting excited that I might get to beat your face in for not waking up in time." A woman's voice called out, not bothering to look away from what she was cooking on the stove. She was wearing an oversized white shirt and some red pajama pants with flutes and musical notes on them.

"You would too, wouldn't you?" Naruto answered, sounding slightly disgruntled at the vision of him getting his ass beat. He sniffed the air. "Hey, something smells good! What are you making?" He asked as he took a seat at the table

"I decided to make pancakes this morning." The woman replied, as she flipped another pancake in the air. Naruto paled at this new bit of information.

"But your horrible at making pancakes. They taste like absolute shit. I'm a little surprised you haven't burned down the house, judging from what happened last time." A vein popped on the back of the redhead's head.

"They taste like crap do they?" The redhead said slowly. Naruto now feared for his life. She turned around quickly, fire burning in her eyes. "Your going to eat them, and you'll fucking like them! If you don't…" She simply let the threat hang in the air.

"Tayuya...lets be reasonable here. There's no need-" Naruto began, but was interrupted when a plate was slammed in front of him. Naruto looked up and saw Tayuya staring at him, her arms crossed.

"Eat. Now." Was all she said. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Tayuya questioned as Naruto continued to just stare at his food like it was some sort of painting. "I said eat dammit!" She practically shouted. She took out a knife and brandished it in front of him as if she was going to stab him.

"Tayuya," Naruto began, "I think I'll have to-" Naruto was cut off as Tayuya forcibly shoved a piece of food into his mouth as he was talking. Naruto didn't really have much of a choice. He ate the food, no matter how bad it tasted.

Tayuya smiled as she took the fork out of his mouth and started twirling it around as she leaned on her elbow. "Now was that so hard, or am I going to have to keep force feeding you?" One thing Naruto absolutely loved was whenever the redhead smiled. It was such a rare occurrence at the beginning of their relationship so long ago. He treasured every single moment. That's right folks. Naruto Uzumaki and Tayuya Darius were going out. Doesn't really sound like the picture perfect couple does it? Most of the people of Konoha thought the exactly same thing. Regardless, they were together. How you ask? Well…

"What the hell are you staring at?" Tayuya asked rather annoyed. Naruto had been staring at her for quite a long time.

"I was just thinking how beautiful your smile is." Naruto said dreamily.

"How sweet…" Tayuya began, "Now eat the rest of your pancakes." She stated. Naruto decided to give up on the losing battle and just eat the pancakes. Tayuya watched Naruto eat before deciding to go back to the stove to clean up. "You can't be hungry while you're attending the wedding and giving your speech. You are the best man after all." Tayuya brought the pan she used to cook to the sink and started the water. She turned around and leaned on the counter. "Do you have your clothes ready yet? After all, you shouldn't wear your Jonin vest to the wedding."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. And yes, I have all the clothes ready. Shouldn't we get going soon?"

"Gawd, your just like your sensei in that you have no skill to judge time. The wedding doesn't start till 3 and everyone will get there around two. We should leave around 1:30." Tayuya explained.

Naruto stroked his chin for a moment. "Won't it only take about 5 minutes if we take the rooftops?"

"Were walking. I plan to enjoy this day. After all, it's not everyday where one of your best friend gets a wedding, right?"

"I suppose so." Naruto agreed. He had just finished off the pancakes and walked over to the sink were Tayuya was cleaning. She stopped cleaning for a moment and put her arms around his neck.

"Listen, don't be so nervous. I can see the worry on your face. If your so uptight, how do you even plan to give a speech?" she said, looking into his blue eyes. They were an easy indicator on how Naruto felt, for Tayuya at least. The fox-boy turned his head away.

"Listen…I don't want to mess up and ruin my reputation. There's a lot ridding on this wedding. It's taken years for me to be accepted." Naruto said, his eyes downcast. Tayuya removed one of her hands from his neck and pushed his chin up so that he would look at her.

"You will do well." Was all the redhead said. She gave him a quick peck on the lips and returned to what she was doing. Naruto had a huge ass grin on his face. It wasn't often that Tayuya showed affection.

There were several knocks at the door before it was finally just busted down. "Bro!" A young voice called out, completely ignoring the broken down door as he ran into the kitchen, "Are you ready-oh, you're here too?" he asked. Naruto shook his head at the boy in front of him. He no longer sported the scarf he wore so long ago, nor the helmet either. He was wearing some black slacks and a white button down shirt, as today was a very important day after all. His hair still went straight up as always. Naruto always wondered how his hair did that. It was even more outrageous than his own hair, which had started to take on a shaggier look when he turned 18, about 6 months before Tayuya had moved in with him.

"Konohamaru…I've lived here for over a year and a half…" Tayuya said slowly. "Besides…that's the 5th door you've broken in the last 3 months." Tayuya finished, slowly turning around. Her eyes were clouded over as she whipped out her flute. "Time to pay the piper!"

"That pun was pretty bad fireball." Tayuya slapped her head. She hated it when Naruto called her that.

"Tell me again why I let you call me that?" She asked, quite exasperated. Naruto just sported one of his trademark grins.

"Because you're my fireball!" Naruto sounded as if it was the most obvious things in the world.

"Ahem!" Konohamaru called out, "As much as I don't want to interrupt your moment, I have to remind you that both of you play a key role in this wedding. Tayuya is a bride's maid, while Naruto is the best man. In a way, you're the second most important couple there." Naruto just looked blankly at Konohamaru.

"Speaking of couples, have you made a decision yet?" Naruto asked, looking intently at Konohamaru. His face heated up before the redness faded back to normal a moment later

Konohamaru shuffled his feet and looked down. "Does everyone know? Is it really that obvious?"

"Honey, the whole village knows. Soooooo, will it be the stuck up Hanabi or the orange haired one?" Tayuya asked sweetly, leaning down to get on Konohamaru's level.

Konohamaru's eyes narrowed as he reared back his fist and tried to punch Tayuya. She simply leaned back up and put a hand on his head as he vainly tried to hit her anyway possible. "Don't say that about Hanabi and her name is Moegi! I'll kick your ass! Let go of me you bitch! Let go I say!"

"I think my language is rubbing off on the village, what do you think Naruto?" Tayuya finished, looking over at Naruto. Naruto just sighed.

"I think he hasn't made a decision yet."

Konohamaru gave up trying to punch Tayuya and let his arms drop. "Hanabi demanded-demanded!- that I be her boyfriend. She may act rough and cold, but it's easy to tell she cares for me."

"What of orange head girl?"

"Dammit Tayuya, you think you would refer to her by her name since you've been in our village so long! Do you know how much she looks up to you? She looks up to you almost as much as she does to Temari and Sakura."

"I know, I talked to her yesterday. Is it true that you talked to Hanabi first when your team met last time?" Konohamaru paled at the last sentence and took a few steps back

"S-She noticed that and told you?" he stuttered.

"Yes, she did. She was quite upset mind you. She described it as if you just completely ignored her, not even saying 'hi'. You should be punished Konohamaru…" Tayuya finished as she brought her flute to her lips.

Naruto stepped in before anything could get more out of hand he grabbed hold of her flute, blocking all the holes so she couldn't play any melodies. "Tayuya, I think it would be best to let him off this time. After all, Hiashi might get angry at the prospect of his future son-in-law being assaulted." Konohamaru's face drained of all its blood when he thought of having to deal with Hiashi, the head of the Hyuuga house.

"I wonder when that old coot will keel over and die. Isn't he almost 50 now?" Naruto and Konohamaru looked shocked on how freely Tayuya would speak about highly renowned individuals.

"Tayuya, you shouldn't talk about people like that, especially high standing figures such as Hiashi." Tayuya simply scoffed at Naruto's words. Naruto just shook his head. She would never fully respect any figure, unless she liked them…

"Your one to talk blondie. You always say," Tayuya stated before she started imitating Naruto's voice, "That old coot should step down already. It won't be long before he can only walk with a cane. He's the reason-mmffh!" Naruto quickly covered the flute player's mouth before she could say anymore. Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"So, Konohamaru, what brings you here?" Naruto nervously asked. He didn't need to be embarrassed now. There would be plenty of chances for it at the wedding.

"Oh yeah! I came to give you this." Konohamaru reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a small box. "Gaara told me that you wouldn't be able to lose it on the actual day of the wedding."

Naruto finally removed his hand from Tayuya's mouth and frowned. "Why was Gaara holding the ring?"

"Beats me. I gotta go and meet up with my team briefly. Bye." Konohamaru waved goodbye and ran out of the kitchen. Tayuya walked over to stand next to Naruto.

"That kids in quite a pickle. Reminds me of the decision you had to make a long time ago." Tayuya simply shook her head. "I'm sure it will work out in the end. It did for us right?"

"Yeah, but I hope the one he doesn't choose isn't devastated like Hinata was. I felt so bad…" Naruto looked to the floor, remembering briefly how the conversation went. Before he could fully go into his flashback, he was interrupted with a smack from Tayuya's flute.

"I don't need you to get all angsty on me now. Why don't we go out for a walk before we get all dressed up."

"I thought you weren't one walks on the beach and cuddling at night."

Tayuya looked at Naruto dangerously. "Were going for a walk."

"Yes Ma'am." Naruto said meekly.

"And put on some decent clothes!" She yelled as Naruto went into his bedroom.

**OUTSIDE ON THE STREETS**

Tayuya flipped some stray hair behind her ear as it blew in the wind. The sun was shining and there wasn't a single cloud. It wasn't everyday that it was this beautiful. She looked over at Naruto and was glad to see that he wasn't a complete train wreak. He was wearing a black vest and some khaki's. Tayuya was wearing a long, loose skirt that went down to her ankles and a sleeveless shirt.

"So, up for some ramen?" Naruto asked, first thing out of his mouth. He had to dodge two kids as they ran bye.

"Must you be so damn predictable at times Naruto?" The container of the mighty nine-tailed fox simply tilted his head to the side.

"What do you mean?"

"It's so typical for you to say 'Let's go get some ramen!'. It drives me up the wall!" Tayuya bellowed to emphasize the fact. "The first place you ever took me out to was a ramen shop."

"Whatever, were still going to get some." Naruto drove his point home by grabbing her hand and dragging her toward his favorite ramen stand.

"Naruto, slow down. Your gonna pull my arm off if you tug any harder." Naruto quickly dropped her arm at her complaint. However, the former sound-nin re-laced her hands with his after he dropped hers. Naruto gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

As they traveled toward Ichiraku, Tayuya started day dreaming about the time she and Naruto met. As they passed through the market, Naruto noticed that Tayuya was staring off into space.

"Tayuya, what's wrong?" Naruto's concern was clearly evident through his voice.

"Naruto, do you remember when we first met?"

"You mean when you fought Shikamaru and such. And then you lost. I still don't know how you survived though that attack." Naruto finished up and looked over at Tayuya, who was looking at the ground.

"You know how it goes…"

**FLASH BACK**

_Tayuya groaned in pain as her eyes opened slowly. Her vision was very hazy and she couldn't see to well as she just woke up. As she finally got her bearings, she tried to move her legs, but soon realized that she couldn't move very much. The first feeling she registered was pain._

"_What the fuck happened?" Tayuya whispered, her voice very dry and scratchy. She looked down at her legs and saw a giant log crushing her lower body. She tried to remembered what happened. She was fighting some shadow user until that wind ninja. She remembered hiding behind a tree and playing her flute and turning around to see its affect. When she turned around, she saw all the trees being cut down before the tree she was standing on was also cut down. After that, she blacked out._

_Tayuya just stared at sky for a while. She didn't know really what to do. As of right now, she was completely helpless. She needed a miracle to survive. Tayuya snorted at that thought._

"_Like that's going to happen."_

"_Are you okay?" a voice called out. Tayuya turned her head to see a blonde headed shinobi heading her way. As he got closer, she realized who it was._

"_Shit, its that annoying, loud ninja." She said mostly to herself. As the ninja approached, he stopped and stared at her in shock._

"_Y-you!" he shouted._

"_Yeah, its me dipshit. Did you expect someone else?" she said sarcastically. At least it didn't hurt her to talk._

"_What are you doing here!?" Did he have to continue to shout?_

"_What does it look like? I'm stuck here since I lost."_

_The blonde ninja-Naruto was it? She didn't remember what the shadow user called him-looked her over and saw that she had a giant tree-stump covering the lower half of her body. "Oh." Oh? Was that all he would say?_

"_Looks like you lost to Sasuke." The leaf-nin's face darkened at what she just said. Bingo. "You are so pathetic. Couldn't even bring back someone who you considered a friend?"_

"_Shut up! I should just leave you here to rot and die!." Blondie turned around to leave, but then looked back to Tayuya._

"_Is there something on my face? Why the hell are you staring at me?" she questioned. She frowned as he walked over to her. "Are you gonna finish me off? Just do it! Get it over and done with!" She said angrily _

_The boy just looked at her and looked at the stump. He then walked over to the stump and started to remove it. Tayuya frowned at the ninja._

"_What are you doing?" Tayuya sounded very uncertain._

"_I can't ignore someone in need." He said quietly. Tayuya just continued to gawk at the young man._

"_W-why?"_

"_Its my way of the ninja." He made it sound as if it was the way he lived bye._

_Tayuya looked down, which was basically at the log on top of her legs. What would he do with her after he did remove the log? Was he even strong enough to remove the log? Would she be taken to Konoha and interrogated? Tortured? Even killed? All these questions were giving her a major headache._

"_So what happens now?" She asked. The blonde shinobi looked over at her._

"_Your going back to Konoha with me. We'll decide what to do then." With a final heave he threw the log off of her. She didn't bother trying to move her legs, as they hurt like hell._

_He walked over to pick Tayuya up when a kunai flew in between them. Naruto jumped back in shock as they both looked up to the treetops to see Kabuto standing there, twirling another Kunai. "Naruto," he said fondly, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave Tayuya alone. Orochimaru's orders you see." Tayuya heard Naruto growl. "You cannot beat me, but I will give you a chance to run however." Kabuto had almost an amicable tone toward this ninja._

_Naruto looked toward Kabuto, then back at Tayuya. He hung his head and jumped off into the forest._

"_Come Tayuya, lets get going. Orochimaru is waiting for me to return." He jumped down from the trees and picked up Tayuya. He turned toward the direction of sound village and headed out._

_She looked up at Kabuto. "How did you know where I was?"_

_Kabuto looked at Tayuya, then at her mangled legs. "I'm not quite sure if I can fix your legs Tayuya…it is worth a shot though." Kabuto said. "That curse seal you have allows Orochimaru to pinpoint your location and whether your alive or not. Pretty useful huh?" Tayuya didn't say anything to this. She couldn't get her mind off that boy named Naruto. Never before had someone actually been kind to her without asking for anything in return. Ah well, it didn't matter anyway. It's not like she would ever see the runt again. Oh how wrong she was._

_**END OF FLASH BACK**_

"Its kind of funny to think of that was our first meeting. I was such a little kid back then." Naruto mused.

"In all honestly, I don't really like remembering my past all that much. The past for me isn't pretty. It's hard to live on knowing all that I've done." She looked over to Naruto. "How is it that I'm even able to live like a normal girl in this peaceful village."

Naruto put his arm around Tayuya. "Tayuya, you've also done many good deeds also. You still do good works every week. You do know that the Genin look up to you now. Don't you remember what Shikamaru said to you a few months back? He said you are a wonderful person." Tayuya smiled at that thought.

"Yeah, it's nice to help people out, but back to my original question. Do you remember when we really met, when we had our first real conversation. You remember, it was around the time when you were traveling with that pervert."

**FLASHBACK**

_Tayuya was on a reconnaissance mission for Orochimaru in a small rock village. It had been a year since Kabuto rescued her. After she had recovered, Orochimaru had taken great interest in her and had even trained her personally from time to time. Tayuya was slightly suspicious, as always, but she would take anything she could get from him. He gave her new clothes, as now they were not just a simple gray color. She wasn't forced to wear the 'ass-bow' as she liked to call it. He gave her these weird pants that he called 'jeans'. Tayuya had never heard of the term before, but hey, they were comfortable. He also gave her a black casual t-shirt that was one size too small, so it stopped short of her waist._

_Tayuya was sent on a mission to a small rock village to retrieve some super secret earth scroll. She didn't think that there was an earth scroll here, but orders were orders._

'_It's kinda nice to get out of sound village once in awhile. A place like this is so peaceful in quite.' Tayuya thought to herself as she walked through the main square. People were bustling to a fro all over the place. Some were carrying carriages holding a couple, while others were just running for exercise. The place was decorated with all sorts of small shops that sold various foods, trinkets, and antiques. The wooden buildings fit in perfectly with the tall mountains that surrounded the village. Tayuya watched as little children played in the streets. Even though she would never admit it, she had a soft. Spot for kids._

_Tayuya was so caught up in his reverie that she didn't notice an old man and a young boy walking towards her. She did notice them when she collided with the young boy._

"_Ummf!" Tayuya landed on the ground with a nice loud thud. She leaned back up and looked and pointed at the young boy. "Watch where you're going ass-" she stopped in mid sentence as she recognized the young boy, as he also knew her._

"_YOU!" They shouted at the same time. It was that blonde kid who tried to rescue her so long ago._

"_What the hell are you doing here!?" Tayuya shouted, not bothering to get up._

"_Me? What are you doing here!?" Naruto bellowed back. From there, it turned into a shouting match. Quite a viscous one too._

"_That's none of your damn business!"_

"_Oh yeah? Your probably here to steal something!"_

"_I don't care what you think I'm doing, I won't tell you shit shortie!"_

"_Your gonna tell me even if I have to kick your ass to get it out of you!"_

_Jiraiya simply looked on in confusion._

"_Like you would actually stand a chance."_

"_From how you lost last time, it should be a synch for me!"_

"_Oh please, don't flatter yourself. You're a maggot compared to me!"_

_Naruto puffed up his chest at the last comment. "For a pretty face, you certainly have a rotten personality!" Tayuya turned red as a beet at that insult._

"_Why you-"_

_Jiraiya decided to intervene. "Naruto, who is this?" he inquired. He would normally make a leechous comment, but he decided to hold back because he needed to confirm something._

_Tayuya finally looked up at who Naruto's older companion was. She visibly stiffened. Before her was one f the three great Sanin, Jiraiya. She started to panic a little for once in her life. The toad summoner could easily kill her, and probably wouldn't hesitate to if he found out who she was. Had she come so far, only to die by a unlucky chance?_

"_She's an old friend." Naruto's voice was very faraway as Tayuya looked at him incredulously._

"_I see." Jiraiya didn't know why he defended this sound-nin, let alone one of the sound 4 that took Sasuke away. 'I'm sure he has his reasons. I better leave them alone, as it looks like Naruto wants to talk to her.' If there was one thing he was good at, it was reading people in certain instances. This was one of them. "Naruto, do what you need, we leave in 2 hours." With that, Jiraiya walked off to work on his new book._

_Each of them watched as the one of the three sannin walked off to do his 'research'. They looked at each other with blank looks on their faces. Naruto got up first and dusted himself off. He then extended his hand to Tayuya. She looked at it like it was some kind of disease that she didn't want to touch. Naruto sighed and physically picked up Tayuya and set her on her feet._

"_Come on, I'll treat you to some ramen." Naruto said and started to walk down the street. Tayuya watched him walk off. He turned around. "Are you coming or not?" he called out._

'_Why is he being so nice? Is it a trap? Well, there's only one way to find out.' She thought as she walked toward Naruto. She needed to understand him, at least that's what she thought when she followed him. A desire to understand another can be one of the hardest things to do. When you do however, it truly is a beautiful thing. Little did she know that this one decision she made would be the first step of the rest of her life. Not that their understanding would come any time soon._

_Tayuya caught up and walked beside Naruto. She glanced at him sideways. "Why?"_

_Naruto looked at her confused. "Why what?"_

_Tayuya rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you tell him who I was?"_

"_Didn't feel the need to." Tayuya stopped and stared at the person who had saved her almost a year ago. That's it? He didn't feel the need to? Naruto stopped once he realized that she wasn't walking along beside him any longer. He looked back and sighed exasperatedly. He walked over and grabbed her hand. He then proceeded to drag her to the nearest ramen stand._

_Tayuya, of course, tried in vain to pull her arm out of the boy's vice-like grip, but alas, it was no use. She considered pulling out her flute, but she wasn't very good with one-handed instrument jutsu's. Even though she wanted to, she couldn't physically attack him, as she would likely get kicked out of the village. If there was one thing Orochimaru didn't accept, it was failure. So her only real option was to just fall in step with whisker boy. Speaking of which-_

"_Why do you have whiskers?" Tayuya asked rather bluntly. Naruto looked over as they passed by a local vegetable store. She looked past Naruto to see a few small children trying to jump and take an apple from one of the stands bins._

"_It's a gift from someone very close to me."_

"_Like someone you care about? What a stupid gift. They-" Tayuya was interrupted as the blonde kid let out a bitter laugh._

"_I wouldn't exactly say they care a lot about me. They do in a way."_

"_What the hell kinda of answer is that!" the angry redhead bellowed at Naruto, who was right next to her by the way. "If you can't give me a straight answer, don't give me any answer at all!" Naruto turned to her, his eyes turning read._

"_Shut up, what the hell do you know!?" Naruto shouted back, his eyes turning red.. Tayuya simply scoffed at him._

"_Whatever, I don't really care anyway." Though Tayuya sounded indifferent, she would have been lying if she wasn't slightly scared. Only a bit though._

_The leaf-nin and sound-nin, who were still holding hands to any normal onlooker, walked into a small restaurant. A young girl approached the odd couple._

"_Hello, is this a party of two?" she inquired. Naruto simply nodded. "Follow me please." With that Naruto finally let go of Tayuya's. She rubbed her hand more than she needed too. Why was she even here? She could have just walked off when the Sannin left. All logic told her to leave. Then again, Tayuya was never one to use logic very much._

_They were led to a window seat where they sat down and were given menus. The young girl left them to their own devices._

_Tayuya briefly looked at he menu before deciding what she wanted. She put her menu down and looked at the boy across from here. "So why did you bring me here?" _

_He looked at her from behind his menu. "Because I am hungry, why else would I come here?" A vein popped on Tayuya's forehead when she heard his response._

"_Then why the hell am I here?" She asked very slowly._

"_Because I have some questions that only you can answer." Naruto said casually. Tayuya's eyes narrowed at this new piece of information._

"_So do you think I'll just talk because you saved my life and didn't tell Jiraiya who I was? If you think so you've got another thing coming!" she said forcefully._

_Naruto just looked out the window. "How is Sasuke doing?"_

_Tayuya opened her mouth to give one of her random insults, but was interrupted when the waiter came to take their orders._

"_7 Beef ramen please." Was Naruto's order. Tayuya was used to dining with people who had large appetites, especially when she was with the Sound 4. Still, it was a lot of food._

"_A sushi ramen." Tayuya said, handing her menu to the waiter. "So why do you want to know about Sasuke again?" asked absently, as she knew it would get on his nerves. Unfortunately, it didn't as much as she hoped it would. The boy just let out a heavy sigh._

"_You could say you never know what you have till its finally gone.."_

"_H-Hey, don't get all sentimental on-" Tayuya's words fell on deaf ears._

"_When I first met Sasuke, I couldn't stand the guy. He was a absolute jackass…"_

"_Still is." Tayuya muttered, interrupting the start of what she thought would be a long monologue. Naruto looked as if he had a faraway look in his eyes as he was continuing his story._

"_Over time, we bonded, in a weird sorta way. He even saved my life one time. We were fighting this missing-nin who had some crazy bloodline that allowed him to make these weird ice jutsu's. It allowed him to travel so fast that even Sasuke's Sharningan had trouble following him. His attack used senbon, which is some kind of needle. Eventually, Haku threw a barrage of needles at me, when right before they hit, Sasuke pushed me out of the way to save my life. That was the beginning of our odd relationship." Naruto said in a surreal voice, as if he didn't believe what he was saying. To tell the truth, Tayuya didn't either._

_Tayuya looked at him incredulously. "Wait, that ass actually saved your life? Pfft, that's complete bullshit. It's like he hates everything, that emo fuck." Tayuya replied to his farfetched story._

"_I still can't believe he did it either, as I thought he was dieing, which he also thought, he told me he hated me, as I said the same back to him. 'I hate you..'. Thinking back on it now, the memory seems so fuzzy now. Anyway, it ended up that he somehow survived, and that Haku hadn't been aiming for his vitals. Next-" Tayuya put her hand to stop Naruto from continuing.._

"_If I just give you some information, will you shut the hell up and spare me a monologue. I don't give a shit about what happened in the past." Tayuya said quickly. Naruto just eagerly nodded his head in approval. Tayuya let out a slight sigh. If Orochimaru found out…_

"_Ok, Orochimaru is training Sasuke, teaching him all sorts of things. Sasuke is almost a complete ass to everyone and doesn't care about anything else other than becoming powerful enough to kill his brother. That, and he shows no respect to anyone." There was no need to tell him that Orochimaru had taken a slight interest in her and trained her personally once in awhile._

_Naruto just looked at her. "That's it? That's all your going to tell me?" Naruto asked desperately._

"_Dammit, were fucking enemies dumbass! Be thankful I even told you anything!" Tayuya said angrily._

"_I was hoping for some long monologue." Naruto joked lightly. Tayuya gave him an incredulous look. She opened her mouth to dish out a very harsh insult, but the waiter had just arrived with their food. Naruto thanked the waiter and eagerly dug in. Tayuya just looked on in disgust. He ate like a animal. No class at all. She started eating her ramen when the boy had some nerve to say something to piss her off._

"_God, can you not eat like such a savage?" Naruto had a look of utter disgust on his face. Tayuya opened and closed her mouth before she pointed her fork at the boy._

"_What the fuck! Your one to fucking talk. I'm surprised you can even get half the food into your giant ass mouth with the way you eat.!" Naruto simply shrugged his shoulders._

"_Well, when you slurp, your extremely noisy. I'm surprised the police haven't stopped by and told you to shut up. You let juice spill all over the place. You've gotten some on me multiple-" Tayuya screamed in frustration, causing many of the customers and some passer byes from outside to look at her. She got up and abruptly left the restaurant, leaving Naruto to pay for the bill. "…shit, maybe I shouldn't have said that."_

_**END FLASHBACK**_

"Damn, I was pissed that I had to shell out all my cash for that. And I still didn't have enough! Do you know how long I had to work in that damn kitchen?" Naruto said indignantly. Tayuya smiled evilly.

"You got what you deserved. And you still haven't cleaned up your manners yet. I do expect them to sharpen up soon. If not…" Tayuya let the light threat hang in the air. Then again. Its Tayuya were talking about, so it could be anything. "As I was saying-" Tayuya was cut off as someone had bumped into her and nearly knocked her down. She teetered on her foot for a few moments until Naruto grabbed her and steadied her. She raised her fist in the air to teach whoever ran into her a lesson, but she stopped short as she saw a girl with long orange hair rubbing her head in pain on the ground. She was wearing a scarf around her neck that she sometimes used to tie her hair back with. Right now she was wearing some black slacks and a dark blue hoddie.

"Moegi, are you ever going to grow out of that scarf?" Naruto asked, helping her up to her feet. She dusted herself off and bowed to Tayuya.

"Sorry Tayuya, I was in a hurry. And this scarf was a gift from Konohamaru, you know that." Moegi said, giving a pointed look at Naruto, as if he would have remembered. Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, that's when your team was still Udon, you, and that runt Konohamaru. You guys were a team till Udon became a Jonin right?" Tayuya asked with Moegi nodded in affirmation.

"Yeah. I miss him a lot. I respect his replacement, but that doesn't mean-"

"Must you always cause a ruckus you twit?" A voice called a little ways down. Everyone swiveled their heads to look at the new comer. Having short black hair that barely reached her shoulders. You would think she was a ordinary girl if it wasn't for her pupiless opal eyes. Wearing a long white skirt and a blue button down shirt, with a flower in hair. Hanabi Hyuuga, the little sister of Hinata, stood there frowning at Moegi. "I don't know why I even hang out with you." Moegi stared at her indignantly

"Pfft, you just stick around with me because you like Konohamaru and you know we hang out a lot, but you have no chance against the mighty Moegi." Moegi gave Hanabi a sly look. "Besides, he doesn't like stuck up people." Hanabi stomped her foot

"I'm not as stuck up as I used to be, dammit." Hanabi bellowed. She blushed after her outburst and turned around to fume. Moegi turned back to Tayuya with a sparkling smile.

"Have you seen Konohamaru Tayuya? We've been looking for him, yet we haven't seen him anywhere." The flute player frowned at that.

"He said he was going to meet you guys at the bridge. You mean to tell me that he didn't show up?" She asked. Moegi simply nodded as Hanabi came up to stand next to her.

"When he didn't show up, Ebisu sent us to find him. Alas, we have yet to see him." Hanabi finished for Moegi, who had opened her mouth to speak. She simply nodded instead. "We should continue looking for him. Come Moegi, lets go." Hanabi walked off into a crowd while Moegi waved and ran to catch up to her. Naruto and Tayuya watched them go.

"That Hanabi has really become a lot nicer and not has rude since she joined Konohamaru's team hasn't she…" Naruto said as he watched the two girls disappear into the crowd. Tayuya looked over at Naruto slyly and nudged him in the ribs.

"Looks like you're not the only one with the ability to change people eh?" Tayuya said, continuing to nudge him with her elbow. Naruto slapped a hand to his forehead.

"Come on!" He said quickly, hopping that she didn't notice the light blush on his cheeks. He ran off ahead of her, not really sure where to go.

"H-Hey! Come back here you ass!"

**END CHAPTER 1**

And that's it for chapter one. I actually think it turned out not too bad. I would greatly appreciate any constructive criticism, or even what you think of my story. Any suggestions would be helpful too

Also, do you think I should the Japanese suffixes like –san and –Kun? Or just stick with the way I have it now?


	2. First Revelation, First Treason

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who reviewed and told me what they thought of my story. You have know Idea how much I appreciate it! It felt great to know that people actually thought my story wasn't bad.

Again, I don't own Naruto.

Present

_Flashback_

'Present thought'

'_Flashback thought'_

**CHAPTER 2: First Revelation, First Treason**

Tayuya had caught up to Naruto, giving him a bonk on the head for running away from her. Naruto rubbed his head and gave her a sheepish look. Tayuya simply shook her head at him and looked over to their destination, the ramen stand. Tayuya walked ahead of Naruto.

"I don't know why you get embarrassed so easily." Tayuya said, turning around to put her hands behind her back and leaned forward a little bit. "I remember when you would take any kind of praise you could get your hands on."

"Yeah, well, I'm a grown up now right?" Naruto replied, giving her a pointed look. "When you first came here, you wouldn't even bother talking to anyone. You would thought everyone would backstab and use you." Tayuya put her hands up in her defense.

"You would to after you found out you were being used by the people you trusted all your life."

**FLASHBACK**

_Tayuya collapsed to the ground, her ragged breathing echoing off the almost empty chamber. She looked up to see Orochimaru looking down at her. He was giving her an appraising look. She was a genjutsu user dammit, not some taijutsu expert!_

"_You are getting better Tayuya, but you are still slow when it comes to blocking. You must always keep your guard up, even if you think you won't make it in time. You could also try attacking to stop their attack." Orochimaru lectured. He walked over to her and even helped her up. Tayuya bent over to put her hands on her knees. She looked up to her master._

"_With all due respect, why am I learning taijutsu? I am clearly a ninjutsu and genjutsu user." Tayuya said. His gaze hardened at what Tayuya said._

"_So you would rather me not teach you?"_

"_No, I am greatly honored that you would teach me. It's just-"_

"_Then do not question what I do." Tayuya hung her head at what the snake user said. One thing that she didn't want to do was get on his bad side._

"_Yes Orochimaru." She replied as she stood up straight. He waved her off, signaling that she could leave. The redhead did so without hesitating. _

_As Tayuya walked down the dark corridors of Orochimaru's lair located in the sound village, she thought about why he had taken an interest in her in the first place. She had been thinking about it more and more lately. Something wasn't adding up, but she wasn't sure what it meant._

_As she approached her destination, which was the kitchen, she heard pots and pans rattling. Curious, she stuck her head inside the kitchen to see Kabuto barely able to stand up. He was clearly drunk. She snickered at the sight of Orochimaru's tipsy assistant. She found it funny that he could not hold his liquor at all._

"_Whosh there!?" Kabuto asked incoherently. "I'm warnin ya, I know how to use thish baby!" he added, brandishing a pan. Tayuya simply smirked at his predicament._

"_Relax Kabuto, its me, Tayuya." She answered as she entered the kitchen. _

"_Tayuya?" Kabuto scratched his head with his free hand. His face lit up in recognition soon after. "Tayuya!" Kabuto stumbled over to Tayuya and gave her a hug. "How are you!?" he shouted. Tayuya pried him off her and brushed herself off. She needed to remind the fucking idiot that gave him alcohol to never do so again when she was around._

"_I'm fine, Orochimaru just got done with my training for today." Kabuto nodded sagely, as if he knew the meaning of life._

"_Ah yes, Orochimaru has great plans for you little Tayuya, great plans." Tayuya ears perked up at this new piece of information._

"_Wait, what kind of plans?"_

"_Well…I don't know if I should tell you...hic…bah, it doesn't matter, you won't tell anyone!" Kabuto said merrily. He motioned for her to come closer to him. "Alright, I'll tell you why Orochimaru started training you…he wants to make you a strong mother."_

"_A strong mother? What the hell are you talking about dipshit…" Tayuya had a sick feeling in her stomach. She knew she wouldn't like where this was going to end up._

"_For children!" Tayuya gave Kabuto a blank stare. He leaned in and whispered in her ear. "He's going to breed you with Sasuke." Tayuya recoiled like someone had punched her in the face._

"_W-W-What…?" Tayuya stuttered out. She would have never thought this._

"_Orochimaru is going to breed you so that he will have future bodies with the Sharningan, just like Sasuke's body." Kabuto lectured as if he was talking to an idiot. The blood drained from Tayuya's face. "He's training you so that your body will be strong to bear them. Pretty smart huh?" Kabuto could barely finish his sentence as he collapsed on the kitchen floor. Tayuya wasn't hungry anymore. She walked out of the kitchen, almost as if in a trance._

_Kabuto stood up right after Tayuya left. He smirked at how well he planted seeds of doubt. After all, if there was one thing Kabuto was good at, it was acting._

_**END FLASHBACK**_

Naruto stroked his chin in thought outside of the ramen stand. "Yeah, I can see why you distrust people. Was it always that hard growing up in the sound?" Naruto asked, then smacked himself. "That's right, you told me that you went there as a refugee." Tayuya nodded in affirmation.

"I would have kicked your ass if you forgot." Tayuya smirked slightly. "I am quite good at that you know." Naruto snorted at that comment.

"If you say so fireball." Tayuya's face turned slightly red at the comment and the nickname. She opened her mouth to retort, but was cut off as they heard a loud voice.

"Naruto, Tayuya!" Naruto looked over to see Sai and Chouji walking towards them. It was obvious who had called out to them.

"Well, I see your loud as ever fatty." Tayuya said sarcastically. Chouji puffed out his chest, his eyes clouding over as he reached the entrance to Ichiraku's, right where Tayuya and Naruto were standing.

"I'm not fat! I AM-" Sai interrupted his triad as he stepped in front of Chouji.

"Yeah, its all muscle now. Nice…strong…muscle…" Sai trailed off, looking appraisingly Chouji's muscle. There was silence for a few moments, before everyone burst out laughing. "So how's the odd couple doing? You don't look too ready for the wedding." Tayuya shook her fist at him.

"That's more than I can say for you. Are you ever going to get rid of that belly shirt? It annoys the fuck out of me." Tayuya looked over to Chouji. "At least one of you is dressed for the occasion." She added, looking him up and down.

Indeed Chouji was dressed for the occasion. He was wearing a white tuxedo, full with the black tie. Very few people could pull off the white tux, and he was one of those people.

Naruto looked at Chouji's head and smirked. "Did you even cut your hair for the occasion? I think I liked it better long."

"Actually, it was Ino and Sakura who made me get a hair cut. I mean, it's not like I got a buzz cut, its still reaches my shoulders." Chouji put in. Sai gave him a appraising look.

"I think it's sexy!" Naruto gave Sai a pointed look.

"Will you ever get over pretending to be gay or making gay comments? It doesn't really suite you. Besides, didn't it annoy your ex-girlfriend?" Naruto muttered the last part. Sai just slithered up to Naruto like a snake, putting his hands on his chest.

"Does it make you uncomfortable…Naruto?" Sai said seductively. He was brutally shoved to the ground by Tayuya.

"Find your own man fag boy." Tayuya said angrily. "I don't know why the hell Ino even dated you." Sai put his hands to his chest in fake hurt.

"Tayuya, you wound-" Sai was cut off as the redhead walked over and proceeded to kick the young artist over and over. Naruto and Chouji just looked at each other. Neither of them bothered to help the him. For one, they didn't want to piss of Tayuya. Second, they thought Sai kinda deserved it, as he made those kind of jokes way too often.

Naruto let out a sigh. "So today's the day huh?" Chouji just nodded.

"Yep…our best friend is losing his freedom and finally tying the knot." Chouji added, ignoring the screams of pain coming from Sai. Naruto let out another sigh. "I'm sure he'll survive. After all, that girl has had him tied down for quite a while."

"Yeah, I know he'll do well. It was just a matter of time." Naruto said solemnly, looking over at Sai to see him now being chased by Tayuya in a little circle. On lookers seemed to see it as a sport, as some were cheering for Tayuya to catch him, while others were rooting for Sai to make it out alive.

Chouji looked over to Nartuo. "Did Gaara give you the ring?"

"Yeah, Konohamaru delivered it to me this morning. When Shikamaru gave me the ring, he actually suggested I give it to him so I wouldn't lose it. We share a very close bond, so I knew I could trust." Other than Sai's voice crying in agony, there was complete silence between the two.

Chouji looked up to the sky, then back to Naruto. "Is there something you want to say?" he asked. Naruto just nodded.

"Yeah…" Naruto took a deep breath, as if steeling himself for what he was going to say. "You should have been his best man." Chouji knew this would come sooner or later, but he didn't expect it to come this late on the day of the wedding.

"Naruto, listen-"

Naruto just steam rolled over him. "You two have been friends way longer than we have. I feel like I'm just stealing this privilege away from you. I don't-" Naruto was stopped as Chouji put his hand up.

"Naruto, your not stealing anything away from me. Yeah, me and Shikamaru go way back, and yeah, I was a little disappointed, but people change over time. I think you deserve it after all you two did together. It's because of you two that Tayuya can even stay here. When the Hokage revealed who Tayuya really was, Shikamaru was the main reason why most people accepted her, as he made a good argument for her. When he heard that Sasuke had come back, you and him vouched to keep him alive. You two share a bond that surpasses even my own bond with him now. You have nothing to be ashamed of Naruto." Chouji finished his monologue by putting his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Feel better?"

"Yeah, I do." Naruto said smiling. He looked over to see a knocked out Sai on the ground while Tayuya stood on his chest triumphantly. She looked over at Naruto, who seemed all sentimental lately.

"Oi, Naruto, what's wrong with you today? Your way too damn emotional today. It's starting to creep me out." Tayuya said full of mirth. "Your not PMSing are you? I suppose you'll become moody next." Naruto gave her a rude gesture.

"Come on, it's time to eat." Naruto motioned his head toward Ichiraku. He headed in with Chouji close behind, while Tayuya woke up Sai with a quick water jutsu. She then proceeded to drag him along to the stand.

They all took seats while Ayame came up to greet them. "Glad to see you all again. Today's the day isn't it? Your friend is finally going to settle down?" They all nodded. Ayame let out a small giggle. "When he started coming here with Naruto, he would always complain about girls and how bossy they are. It's kind of ironic who he chose to marry isn't it."

"Yeah, I'm surprised that lazy ass was even energetic enough to ask her." Tayuya added, spinning from side to side in her stool. "Right then, lets get some grub." She said while eagerly looking over the menu. Ayame took their orders and walked to the back to start preparing their meal. Naruto looked over to Chouji with a smirk.

"How does it feel to have your own Genin squad already? Are you ready to quit yet?" Naruto asked, poking fun at Chouji's new position. Tayuya looked past Sai to give a questioning look to Chouji

"Wait, you have a Genin squad already? You only became a Jonin about 3 months ago, what's up-" Tayuya was cut off as she saw the glare Chouji was sending at the boy sitting to her right.

"For the last time Naruto, I'm a assistant to the Jonin who is actually teaching the kids." He said angrily. "You've only been saying their my squad for the last month, so cut it out." Naruto just shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, it's a training program to teach people who want to have their own Genin team in the future how to be good teachers and what its like. That old hag," Naruto said while pointing to the 5th Hokage's head on the mountain, "Said that the program would result in better teachers. So yeah, your gonna have your own group sometime in the future."

"I'm surprised your even doing the training program." Sai said, finally speaking up. "I could never handle a bunch of little kids." Tayuya snorted.

"I'm more surprised that Sasuke actually signed up for that damn program. That ass, teaching a bunch of little kids? Please." Naruto rose up to defend his friend and rival.

"Hey, its probably his way of making it up to the village for leaving. He has been working hard to pay his debt." Naruto replied to Tayuya's statement. She once again snorted. "Will you stop that, it makes you sound like a pig." His insult was rewarded with by Tayuya punching him in his shoulder.

"You, Jiraiya, and Kakashi came across him during that month after you killed Kakuza right? When you brought him back, why did he decide to stay and make up for what he did?" Chouji asked curiously. "Why were you guys even out there traveling?" Naruto stopped rubbing his arm and looked over to Chouji.

"We had heard reports of Orochimaru being defeated from and unidentified source, so the three of us were going to check it out. To your other question, when I later asked Sasuke why he stayed, he said this to me…'You don't know what you have until its gone'. I guess he missed the leaf while training at the sound." Naruto said seriously. Sai looked over to Tayuya, waving to get her attention.

"Speaking of Sasuke, why did you two decide to betray Orochimaru after so long? For that matter, how did you two even discuss it?"

"Well… it was kinda weird how me and Sasuke-"

"Sasuke and I." Naruto corrected. Naruto was rewarded this time with his head being bashed into the counter. Tayuya's eye was twitching while a huge vein on her forehead was threatening to explode.

"I hate it when you correct my grammar, especially in public asshole." She said through gritted teeth. She took a deep breath to calm down. "As I was saying before I interrupted, Sasuke and I actually met and discussed our plan on betraying the snake because of the information Kabuto gave me. I later found out that he told me on purpose, but anyway…"

**FLASHBACK**

_It had been a long week for Tayuya. Ever since Kabuto had given her that bombshell, it was like her world was turned upside down. It would be one thing if he just used her as a war tool, but as just some simple thing to breed with Sasuke?_

_What. The. Fuck._

_It was absolutely gross that she was just being used to have sex. If it was true…_

_That was the other thing that had been running through her mind the past week. Was what Kabuto said even true? He was drunk at the time, so there is a possibility that he just made it up in his stupor. It was all so confusing. What would she do if it was true. Tayuya just sighed._

"_Is something wrong Tayuya?" Orochimaru asked from above her. "You seem a little absent minded today."_

_It was true, she had been absent minded all week since she found out Orochimaru's 'supposed' plan. She hadn't even bother to rough up the people who were lower ranked than her._

"_No master, I'm fine." Tayuya said quickly. If there was one thing she didn't want, it was Orochimaru's suspicion. He gave her a calculating look._

"_Fine then. You may leave me." He said. Tayuya didn't hesitate as she left immediately. Her training had been upped to two times a week, and this was the second one she this week. She honestly felt drained, and it took a lot to make her drained._

_As she walked about the compound, trying to relax, her thoughts returned to that yellow haired nuisance. The reason was that Sasuke mentioned him last week, as she was passing bye to go practice her taijutsu. Problem was, all during her practice, she thought about their two encounters. She didn't understand him, like why he actually bothered to help her twice. It was stupid of her to try to analyze their encounters, as she didn't really learn anything about him, other than that he wanted to bring Sasuke back. Which puzzled her even more! Why the hell did he go so far for him? Everything about him made her think-_

"_He's a fucking idiot." Tayuya shouted, her voice echoing down the corridors. She didn't even care if someone heard. 'I don't need to understand him remember? I'm never going to see him again. I think I'll head back to my quarters to take a nice bath.' She thought to herself, liking the prospect of relaxing in a tub. Being a member of the sound 4, at least what was left of it, had a few perks._

_As she was walking to her room, she passed a few people here and there, no one she really knew. Not many people had access to Orochimaru's personal lair. She most often saw prisoners or bad sound ninja come in for experiments. It was her bad luck that she had to run into him…Sasuke Uchiha._

_Tayuya swallowed as she walked towards him. 'Just keep walking and look straight ahead. If you do that, he won't bother you and it won't be that obvious that I know something.' She thought to herself, slightly panicked. She shouldn't be this nervous. 'For fuck sakes, just walk past him!' Problem was, it didn't go as planned. Right as they reached each other, their eyes met._

_Time seemed to stop as she looked into his eyes, as he did the same for her. Tayuya broke into a dead run when she looked away. Sasuke just turned and watched her go._

"_It seems that she also has heard, but she's taken it worse than I have…" he said to himself before smirking. "Yes…that would make things much easier."_

_**IN TAYUYA'S ROOM**_

_Tayuya slammed the door behind her and leaned against it, taking deep breaths. She had ran all the way back to her room, bumping into people, knocking over various carts that people were moving. How the hell was she going to explain that to Orochimaru. She took one last deep breath and exhaled._

"…_That was certainly not shady at all!" she said, sarcasm rolling off her tongue. She looked at the ground. "Tayuya you're a fucking idiot." She sighed and got up. There was no point in thinking about it now, she would have to worry about it later. For now, she would relax. She had to carefully step on her floor as to not step and break anything. Her room was a total disaster._

"_Maybe I should clean up." She murmured. Tayuya grabbed her towels and undressed. She then made her way to the bathroom. She turned the water on hot and waited for it to fill up before stepping in._

"_Ahhhh…" She whispered. "This feels great…" Tayuya was so busy relaxing that she didn't hear someone unlock her door._

_After Tayuya was done, she stepped out of the tub and dried off. She wrapped a towel around her self and used another to further dry her hair. As she stepped out of the bathroom, she did not expect to see what she did._

"_Y-You…" she stuttered, seeing Sasuke sitting on her bed. He got up and turned around to look at her. Their eyes met briefly. Sasuke broke eye contact to look her up and down. After all, she was wearing only a towel. This did not sit well with Tayuya. "Pervert!" She shouted. She then proceeded to grab various things from around the room and throw them at him. Scrolls, books, kunai's, you name it, she threw it._

_Sasuke either dodged or blocked all of the objects thrown at him. He had to hit the deck when a kunai flew over his head. He got back up. "A kunai? Isn't that a little-" he was cut off as a bottle of conditioner hit him in the forehead. Sasuke growled and approached Tayuya. She backed into a corner._

"_You're here because of Orochimaru aren't you? I can't believe your going along with this. I tell you right now, there's no way in hell I'm agreeing to it! I'll fight-" Her shouting was cut off as Sasuke held up his hand._

"_I was right, you have heard." He said, more to himself than to her. She gave him a confused look, her arm raised up to throw one of her shoes at him._

"_What?"_

"_Why don't you get dressed and we'll talk." Sasuke said calmly. He stood there looking at Tayuya, as she stared back. They stared at each other some more. And some more. And- "What are you waiting for?" Sasuke said impatiently._

"_Turn around fucktard!" Tayuya bellowed at him, throwing the shoe she was still holding. Sasuke leaned his head to the left, the shoe passing him and hitting the wall. He then turned around._

"_Just make sure it quick." He stated. Tayuya growled but refrained from saying anything else. She quickly changed, as she didn't want that Uchiha to see anything._

"_Okay, what is it?" Sasuke turned back around._

"_So I assume you heard from Kabuto what Orochimaru wants to do with us." Tayuya opened and closed her mouth. She stood silent for a second before deciding to speak._

"_So when did find out and how long have you known?" she asked curtly_

_Sasuke tilted his head as if in thought. "I've known for about 5 months, a lot longer than you. I learned from one of Orochimaru's advisors speaking with Kabuto one night. As I was walking down the hall on the way to train with Orochimaru-"_

"_Can't you say his name with a little respect? Would it really hurt that much?" Tayuya asked while rubbing her temple. Sasuke just gave her a blank stare._

"_As I was saying," Sasuke continued, completely ignoring what Tayuya said, "I heard a conversation between Kabuto and one of Orochimaru's advisors talking. I heard my name mentioned, so I decided t stop and listen. The advisor asked if Orochimaru was really planning to breed me with, as referred to you, 'that foul-mouthed bitch'." He gave a smile as Tayuya's face contorted with rage._

"_I'll kill that bastard! Who is he!? Tell me who that fucker is!" Tayuya said, grabbing Sasuke by his shirt. Sasuke simply grabbed her hands and pushed her off of him._

"_That's already taken care of." Tayuya gave him a confused look. "Kabuto disposed of him right after the advisor said that. I heard the guy scream out in pain. I wouldn't believe it normally, but then I heard Kabuto talk, apparently to his dead body. He said, 'That is top secret and was never to be mentioned. The price for disobedience is your life. I don't know how the hell you found out, but it was good that you came to me, as it could have spread pretty fast.' As you can guess, I went off to my training pretty quickly." Sasuke finished while leaning against the wall. Tayuya slowly digested all the new information._

"_So, why are you here again? State your business or get the hell out." She said bluntly._

"_I'm enlisting you to betray Orochimaru and kill him. With me."_

"…_What!?" Tayuya shouted. Betray Orochimaru? Was he serious? "No fucking way! He gave me a home, a place to stay! How can you even say that?" she asked. If Orochimaru found out, he would kill them both!_

"_Please, he only keeps me here to take over my body while I just stay here to learn from him. He keeps you around to use as a breeding machine, but why do you stay around? Loyalty? There is no such thing in this age. Everyone must fight for themselves to survive and become strong." Sasuke said clenching his fist. "I'm not going to be Orochimaru's puppet as a new host or a breeding tool. When the time comes, he will be weak and I will fight him."_

"_How do you know he will be weak?" Tayuya asked, wanting to know this new piece of information. She was afraid now. She was being slowly sucked in by Sasuke's argument. She was actually considering what he was saying._

"_When I originally arrived, he had just transferred bodies. You could tell he was sick and very weak. Since he couldn't wait long enough, that implies that there is a limit on how long he can stay in one body. That's when I'll strike, when I don't have anything else to learn."_

"_Why do you want me to join you? What makes you think I won't tell?" Tayuya asked, continuing her questions. Sasuke pushed himself from the wall and crossed his arms._

"_The more people, the better chance of killing him I have. I could just kill you if you threatened to tell him, as his new host is much more important than breeding you. Also, he probably already suspects I'll betray him eventually, so he won't even care. That's why you'll be my wild card." Sasuke said, continuing to list reasons why she should join him. "I also want you to join because you have a curse seal, meaning you can also get a huge boost of power. Even if we don't kill him, we could injure enough so that he won't be able to peruse us for awhile. After all, the curse seal tells him our location, so if he can pursue us right away, there would be no point in running." Sasuke said the last point while pointing to his neck. He saw that Tayuya was on the brink of coming to his side, he needed to add a little bit more persuasion._

"_Let's say we succeed, then what? Where will we go?" She asked. Sasuke just shrugged his shoulder._

"_Who knows? We can travel together for a while if you want to, or we could go our separate ways. We might not even have the slightest chance of winning in the first place. After all, he has a way to take control of our curse seal and he is a sannin"_

"_The why the fuck do you even bother trying!?" she shouted angrily. Sasuke turned and looked directly into her eyes yet again, as if searching for something._

"_I would rather die trying to fight what Orochimaru has in store for me than just lie back and accept what is going to happen. Wouldn't you?" He was right. She couldn't just sit around, waiting to be breed like some animal. Orochimaru, if he took over Sasuke's body, would probably have sex with her himself, as it would still result in children with the Sharningan. Tayuya took a deep breath._

"_Alright…I'll go along with it. I assume this won't be happening for awhile?" Tayuya inquired. Sasuke nodded in affirmation. "This is a pretty fucking crazy idea, you do know that don't you?"_

"_Hn."_

"_God, that's just like you, you emo bastard, just a 'hn' to a serious question!" _

"_I'll be seeing you around." Sasuke intoned, turning around and walking out of her room. Tayuya closed her eyes and tried to count to 10. I must emphasize try. Alas, it didn't work._

"_ARGHHHHHHHHH!!!!"_

**END FLASHBACK**

"Wow, I'm amazed that you decided to betray him after you worshipped him for so long." Sai sound, twirling a chopstick around his fingers. By 'him' he was of course referring to Orochimaru. Tayuya rolled her eyes.

"I didn't go along with it right away, I wafted back and forth for a long time." Tayuya said rudely. "I even considered running to Orochimaru and telling him what Sasuke was planning."

"Why didn't you?" Chouji asked.

"In all honestly, I have absolutely no clue." She told him, leaning her head on Naruto's shoulder as if she was tired. "If I told him, a lot of things would have probably changed. I wouldn't be here…Sasuke would most likely be dead or a new host for the sneaky snake."

"Was it really true? That Orochimaru wanted to breed you?" Naruto asked quickly. Tayuya sighed at how nervous he sounded.

"For fucks sake, yes! Must we continue to talk about?" Tayuya said forcefully, looking at each member of the male species as if daring them to talk. When none of them did, she nodded her head. "Now, lets see…"

"Hey, how did the actual fight go with Orochimaru go?" Naruto inquired, taking after Sai and twirling his chop stick.

"Orochimaru this, Orochimaru that, the guy's dead for crying out loud!?" Tayuya complained. "Must we still talk about him?"

"So you two defeated him, all alone?" Sai asked. Tayuya shook her head.

"Are you kidding? Even with the guy bed ridden, he still put up a damn good fight. He suppressed our curse seals very early on, so we couldn't use the level 2. If he was in tip-top condition, he could have taken us down in an instance, but we had somewhat of an advantage. Even with him training both of us, we still would have lost if it wasn't for one person intervening. The best part was, it was the last person I thought who would help us out." Tayuya smirked in remembrance. "It was a huge surprise to Orochimaru the most. He may have helped us only a moment, but that was all we needed."

"So tell us what happened!" Chouji said enthusiastically, wanting to know what happened. Tayuya scoffed at what he said.

"Screw you, I've had enough flashbacks for one day!" Tayuya told him. 'But I doubt it will be my last'. "Get Sasuke to tell you what happened!" You can guess who decided to show up at that moment.

"Yo." All four heads turned around to see the new comer. Tayuya swore, Chouji smiled, Sai smirked, and Naruto grinned.

"Speak of the devil." Sai said.

"Just in time too." Chouji added.

"It good to see you Sasuke." Naruto finished for them.

**END CHAPTER 2**

I kinda like how this chapter turned out. I had fun righting this one. Next up is First Betrayal, First Reunion.. I like the next chapter, as it has the reunion of Naruto and Tayuya, which really marks the start of their relationship you could say. Also, it's Sasuke's first appearance in the present. I have a long paper due the next week, so the next chapter might not be out for about a week. I've already started it though, so that's some good news. Oh yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if you guys already know who the person was that helped Sasuke and Tayuya survive. I'm thinking about changing the secondary category to humor, as I think it strikes me more as a light hearted story than a general one that has everything.

Real quick thing I decided to add, can I get someone (or two) people to beta my next chapter? Just send me a message or something. Thanks.


	3. First Betrayl, First Reunion

Still don't own Naruto

Wow, this took a bit longer than I thought it would. Sorry to those who were expecting some fight scenes this chapter. I decided to pull a Kishi and not animate the battles. I feel that depicting a battle would be out of place in this story.

I've also had a few people point out that the flashbacks can be kinda hard to read. The only real response I can think is to possibily make the text bigger? Sorry if that makes me sound like an ass or a really pointless answer, but that's the only thing I can think of, as I've looked at the story without the intalics and it just doesn't feel right. I also have some stuff at the bottom of the chapter about needing a beta. I also threw in a extra pointless flashback, so its not in the title. If it was, it would be called 'First Battlt'

**CHAPTER 3: FIRST BETRAYL, FIRST REUNION**

"Hey guys, I see you were probably all dragged here by last place.." Sasuke said, smirking at Naruto's angry face.

"Shut up! I'm not last place anymore." Naruto said angrily pointing at Sasuke.

"You'll always be last place in my book, even if you-"

"When." Tayuya interrupted, knowing what Sasuke was going to say.

"-become Hokage." Sasuke finished, sending a dirty look at Tayuya.

"Well, you'll always look like shit to me. Why don't you get a fucking hair cut?" Tayuya said, looking the Uchiha up and down. Sasuke's hair was still as spiky as ever, it was just much longer than it was when he left the sound. "How much damn hair gel do you use everyday?" Sasuke sat down next to Naruto.

"Must you use bad language around me?"

"Yes! Your plan almost got us fucking killed!" Tayuya bellowed, causing all the people in the general area to cringe and cover their ears. "Why the hell aren't you dressed yet anyway?" Sasuke was dressed in a blue hoddie that Sakura had made for him. He had attached his clan symbol on the back of it. He was also wearing a black pair of slacks.

"Hey, I'm half dressed." He said in defense. Sai laughed at his tone.

"I'm surprised your wearing that hoddie that Sakura made for you so long ago." Sai said jovially.

"In all honesty, I don't really remember why Sakura gave me this thing."

"I'm disappointed you don't remember Sasuke." A female tone called out from behind everyone. Everyone looked around to see Sakura dressed in her normal red attire. Sasuke looked at Sakura.

"Really? Then do tell, when did you give this to me?"

"No." Needless to say, Sasuke wasn't expecting her to say that.

"Come on, just tell me."

"If you can't remember, then I'm not going to tell you…" She said in a teasing tone.

"Hn" Sasuke said turning around to put his hands together under the bridge of his nose. He would have brooded a bit longer, but was sorely interrupted. Sakura walked up to where Naruto was sitting and brushed him aside, causing him to knock over Sasuke in the process. Sakura took Naruto's seat and smiled at Tayuya.

"So how have you been?" She asked Tayuya, completely ignoring what she did to both Naruto and Sasuke.

"I'm doing very good, how about you?" Tayuya responded. Also ignoring Naruto and Sasuke.

"I've been good. It's really…" Sakura's voice faded out as we moved on to see what the two rivals thought of what just happened.

"Dammit…why did that old hag have to teach her to have super strength." Naruto said, rubbing his ass.

"Why the hell are you asking me?" Sasuke retorted, obviously disgruntled at what happened to them. He looked over to where they were sitting to see Sakura and Tayuya chatting. He swore that he could see musical notes extending from their heads as they talked. He shook his head and it was gone.

"Hey Sai, does Sasuke like Sakura?" Chouji whispered, trying to not notify the two females next to him that he was talking about them. Sai stroked his chin in thought.

"Good question. Who knows. Why do you ask?' Sai responded, looking over at Sakura briefly.

"Well, there's been rumors going about for the last 6 months. Its obvious that Sakura still likes him, but Sasuke's always been a hard read." Chouji said, looking past Sakura to see Naruto and Sasuke finally getting up. "Also, Ino wants to know." Sai nodded his head.

"Out of concern for Sakura I presume." The fat one nodded his head. "In all honestly, I don't really know if he likes Sakura or not."

"I heard my name." Sakura said. "What are you guys talking about?" Sai decided to opt for an insult rather than a simple answer.

"Nothing that concerns you forehead. I'm surprised they didn't carve Tsunade's statue onto that thing."

"Why you-!" Sakura responded by waving her fist at him. Chouji decided to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand.

"Hey Sasuke, what happened when you fought Orochimaru?" He asked quickly as Sasuke was returning to his seat. Naruto, on the other hand, was trying to convince Tayuya to let him take her seat and she could sit on his lap. Tayuya was having none of it, as she didn't like to show such obvious affection in public.

"Ah yes…me and Tayuya-"

"Tayuya and I." Naruto said slowly, as if talking to a child. This earned him another smack from Tayuya.

"Correcting grammar doesn't make you any smarter Naruto." Tayuya reprimanded. She looked back over to Sasuke. "Do you actually plan on telling them?" Sasuke simply raised his eyebrows.

"Do you object?" He asked. "If you do-"

"Are you implying something, Sasuke?" Tayuya said dangerously, giving him quite the evil eye.

"Just answer the damn question!" Sasuke in a cold tone. Tayuya simply gave him a calculating look.

"Go right ahead, I could careless."

"Alright, here's how it went down…'

**FLASH BACK**

_Today is the day when everything is going to happen. They over heard Kabuto saying a few days earlier that he needed more of a certain medicine soon, otherwise Orochimaru would be very, very sick. Translation, he would most likely be dead if he did not get it._

_Tayuya had a weird feeling. It was some form of dreaded excitement. She dreaded that she would face off against the one person who took her in and that she might not even live. She was also excited that she could be freed from her fate. As she walked next to Sasuke, he was almost too quite and broody. Sad part was, Tayuya knew exactly why. She couldn't resist letting out a few insults before their battle._

"_Was the reunion all that you hoped it to be?" Tayuya asked sweetly. Sasuke stopped and gave her a blank look._

"_That happened over 3 months ago." He deadpanned. Tayuya wouldn't let the conversation end that easily._

"_Meaning that its pretty fucking sad that your still thinking about the encounter." She added. Sasuke didn't even bother to acknowledge her, as returned to walking to where Orochimaru was located._

"_It brought up some old memories. You know that he asked about you before we all left." This was news to Tayuya._

"_Why did he ask about me?" She inquired, now slightly interested._

"_How should I know?" Sasuke paused for a moment. "Why do you want to know?" Tayuya gave him a confused look._

"_What?"_

"_Why do you wish to know what he said? Wait, don't tell me…" Sasuke let the sentence hang, but Tayuya could tell where he was going and she didn't like it one bit. She ran up and stepped in front of him._

"_Are you implying something Uchiha?" She said in a low tone. Sasuke stared down at her before he pushed her out of the way and continued walking. "I don't care about him and any way, shape, or form, you got that!? Answer me dammit!" Sasuke turned around briefly._

"_Let me guess, you find him intriguing?" Tayuya didn't give a spoken reply, but her facial expression was enough. "Thought so." Sasuke said. He then turned around and continued to walk down the long corridor._

"_That's it? Is that all your going to say?" Tayuya asked incredulously. Sasuke just continued to walk. Tayuya was forced to run so she could catch up._

"_We don't have time for this talk right now. We have to be ready for our battle, as if we mess up even for a second, it will be our last." Sasuke lectured. "Do you remember the plan?"_

"_Of course I do. Your going to try to take care of his arms, that way he won't be able to seal the curse seal right away. If you somehow fuck up, I'll cast a genjutsu so you can try to get rid of his arms. After that, we go in for taijutsu, as he could crush us in ninjutsu, so we can't give him a chance to cast any." Tayuya explained in a sarcastic tone. "So basically I'm a fucking decoy?"_

"_Basically. Make sure you don't get in my way." Sasuke said in condescending tone. As much as Tayuya hated to admit it, he was right. Although Tayuya had over two years of personal training with the snake sannin, she couldn't hold a finger to what Sasuke could do. They continued to walk on in silence before Sasuke decided to break it. "Are you nervous?"_

"_Would it be bad if I said yes?" Tayuya asked sarcastically. Sasuke merely looked at her, then looked on ahead._

"_I have abandoned such emotions. Do not let your fear get in your way." Sasuke said coldly. Tayuya opened her mouth to retort, but stopped when they heard Kabuto's voice up ahead.._

"_I'll just go get some." He said. Right afterwards, they heard a door close. Tayuya and Sasuke wordlessly moved to their destination._

"_We must attack before he decides to check where we are…Lets go." With that, Sasuke extended his charka as if it were a sword through the wooden boards. It was quiet for a moment before they finally heard a voice._

"_Who are you?" Orochimaru said slowly. Sasuke chose this moment to activate his curse seal, as Tayuya did the same. He wordlessly pulled out his sword and cut the door in front of them into tiny pieces._

_When Tayuya and Sasuke stepped in, Orochimaru froze in horror at the mere sight of Tayuya in all her glory. He simply blew apart because of how amazing she was. Tayuya-_

**INTERRUPTED FLASH BACK**

"Dammit Tayuya, don't interrupt me!" Sasuke said, sounding slightly agitated. "He blew up at the mere sight of you? None of that shit happened." Tayuya didn't even bother to look at him while he spoke.

"Well is should of." She grumbled. The others sitting at the ramen stand just looked on in confusion.

"As I was saying, before I was interrupted,"

**FLASHBACK**

_Sasuke and Tayuya stepped through the doorway. Orochimaru's snake like eyes narrowed. "I knew…it'd come to this." He said before looking over to Tayuya. "I did not expect you to be joining him Tayuya. What is the meaning of this!?" He shouted the last part while he tried in vain to move his arms that Sasuke had locked with his charka._

"_I heard about your plan master…that you want to use me as a breeding tool." She said angrily, her curse seal taking over more of her body. "I won't stand for it!" Orochimaru glared at her._

"_Who told you?" he asked, not even bothering to try and deny her claims._

"_That doesn't matter right now." Sasuke said, answering for Tayuya. "I have nothing more to learn from you. I won't show you any mercy either…" Sasuke closed his eyes for a moment, before opening them back up to reveal his Sharningan. "Even if you beg on your knees." With that, Sasuke dashed at the snake sannin while Tayuya pulled out her flute._

_**LATER ON IN THE FIGHT**_

_Tayuya turned around to see Orochimaru appear in front of her. He slammed his knee into her stomach before giving her a spinning kick as she keeled over. She felt her curse seal deactivate as she flew across the room and slammed into one of the walls. She looked up to see Sasuke in a taijutsu match._

'_Dammit' she thought to herself. 'this isn't working. Even though the damn guys sick, he's still really fast, too fast for us without our second level of the curse seal. And he subdued that by sticking a seal on us! At least he can only suppress one curse seal at a time with his hands.' Tayuya looked up to see Orochimaru extend his tongue to choke Sasuke. He tried in vain to loosen the grip around his neck._

_Tayuya slammed her first into the ground. 'None of this was supposed to happen! He should have died within a few seconds of Sasuke charging at him. He wasn't supposed to escape and free his hands so quickly!' Tayuya screamed inside her head. She couldn't just give up yet. Tayuya vainly tried to up, but was disheartened when Orochimaru came over and stepped on her flute, effectively breaking it. She looked up to see him standing over her while Sasuke was still suspended by Orochimaru's tongue. He released Sasuke to speak._

"_Well, well, I never thought that both of you would find out that I planned to breed you." Orochimaru said half crazed, blood dripping from his mouth because of his sickness. He also had a lot of bruises and cuts, courtesy of the two curse seal users. "Well, its time to transfer to a new body."_

_It seemed that what happened next happened in slow motion. Tayuya watched as Orochimaru brought his hands up in a weird seal. He opened his mouth to utter some words, but was cutoff as Kabuto came in and cut one of his hands with a charka scalpel. Orochimaru hopped back, his voice screaming crying out._

"_KABUTOOOOOO!!!" He screamed from the top of his lungs, his face contorting in rage. "WHY!? WHY AFTER ALL YOU"VE DONE FOR ME, WHY NOW? ANSWER ME KABUTO!!!!?"_

"_There is no need." Sasuke said coldly, his blade raised above Orochimaru's head, much like Itachi did to Sasuke's parents. "It ends now." With that, Sasuke cut off his head with one clean slice, before falling to his knees._

"_So this is how it ends huh?" Tayuya said, her voice filled with mirth. "A man who killed his own teacher is killed by his own student…how ironic."_

**END FLASHBACK**

"I still find it hard to believe that Kabuto actually betrayed Orochimaru." Sasuke said as an after thought.

"Yeah, from the stories you've told me Naruto, you made it sound like the guy had Orochimaru's absolute trust." Chouji said, looking at Naruto who was standing next to where Tayuya was sitting. Tayuya stroked her chin for a moment.

"Speaking of which, you never told me what Naruto said when he asked about me Sasuke. What did you say Naruto?" Sakura and Sai gave a light chuckle while Naruto had a very nervous look on his face.

"Oh, its not that important." He said quickly. Tayuya just narrowed her eyes.

"Oh, but I think it is." She insisted. Sai opted at this moment to reveal what Naruto said.

"He said 'Where's that annoying-" It just so happened that the food that everyone ordered was placed right in front of them at that moment and Naruto didn't hesitate to let everyone know.

"Food's here!" Naruto shouted. He quickly grabbed his bowl and returned to his seat next to Sasuke. Tayuya shot him a dirty.

"This isn't over yet. I DO plan to find out what was said." Naruto paled slightly at the threat, but was quickly rejoiced as he stared at his bowl of ramen. Ayame also brought out an extra bowl.

"Since I figured you would stop by Sasuke I decided to make an extra beef ramen." She gave Sakura an apologetic look. "Sorry Sakura, but I didn't think you would show up. I can-" Sakura waved her off.

"It's okay Ayame, I'm not very hungry. I appreciate the thought though." She looked past Naruto, to where Sasuke was eating peacefully. "Sasuke…" Said boy stiffened at the musical pitch Sakura's voice took on. "Do you mind sharing?" Sasuke looked at his bowl, then at Sakura, then back to his bowl. He out a heavy sigh.

"Sure…Naruto, go switch with Sakura." Naruto opened his mouth for some rude retort at Sasuke ordering him what to do, but Tayuya reached around Sakura and grabbed one of his ears with her chopsticks.

"Why of course Sasuke." She said smiling at him. She then frowned at Naruto. "Move. Now."

"Why should I?" Said Naruto in a challenging tone. Tayuya's face contorted before she jabbed her chopsticks at Naruto's face. He leaned forward causing her to miss. He leaned back at her next strike, before he finally caught her chopsticks with his own. It was quite comical I assure you.

"You have a long way to go before you reach my level fireball." Naruto said, the smirk very evident. He let go of her chopsticks so he could get up and move for Sakura. Ayame chuckled in remembrance as she watched the battle.

"I remember the first chopstick battle you two had. I don't remember how long ago it was, but I do remember my dad was pissed."

**FLASHBACK**

_Tayuya and Naruto walked side by side without talking that much. After all, neither of them wanted to be there._

"_Damn I hate that hag." Naruto grumbled to himself. Since Naruto had vouched for Tayuya to stay, Tsunade said it was only natural that he should take her some dinner. Naruto gave his companion a glance from the corner of his eyes. "So today is the last day you'll ever be called Tayuya? I don't see why its such a big deal to you." Tayuya growled at the boy's ignorance._

"_I don't want to talk about it, got it? Where are you taking me anyway?" She asked. Naruto smiled at the thought of where they were going._

"_Ichiraku's ramen stand!" He said, excitement pouring from his voice. Tayuya chose to keep silent. As they approached their destination, Naruto waved at the two people he saw there. "Oldman! Ayame!" Said people looked at who approached them._

"_Naruto! How are you?" Teuchi asked. He then looked at his companion. "And who is your friend here?" Tayuya opened her mouth to tell the geezer off, but Naruto answer before she had a chance._

"_She a friend of a friend. I invited her to come with me when she said she had never had ramen before." Naruto finished. He then gave her a look that clearly said 'keep your mouth shut.' Tayuya just gave him a rude hand gesture._

_The two took seats, not next to each other mind you, and ordered their respective meals. They didn't even bother to try and talk. Tayuya didn't want to have anything to do with the blonde shinobi and Naruto was too drained, both mentally and physically to even bother trying to start a conversation. The received their dishes and ate in relative silence…until Tayuya just had to look at how Naruto was eating._

"_You still eat like a slob even after two years?" Tayuya said. She didn't get a reaction, so she tried for another insult. "Are you too tired to even answer me? Are you afraid he'll run away again after all you've done for him?" By 'him', she was of course referring to Sasuke. Again, no reaction. "God dammit you little shit, answer-" Tayuya's insult was cut off as a piece of chicken hit her face. She was too stunned to talk._

"_Your voice is annoying." Was all Naruto said. He grabbed another piece of food from his bowel, this time ramen, and hit her in the face yet again. "Now go back and eat." Naruto turned back to his bowl so he could hopefully eat in peace and quiet. He briefly saw Tayuya turn back to her food, so he figured that it worked. It didn't. Tayuya picked up her bowl and flung the entire contents at Naruto. She had a satisfied smile as the liquid and culinary pieces hit him._

"_How do you like that asshole." She said triumphantly. Her smile left her face as she saw Naruto pick up his bowl and emulate her action._

"_What were you saying again?" Naruto said sweetly. Tayuya let out a loud battle cry before she dove at Naruto with her chopsticks. Not the best weapon, but a weapon nonetheless. Naruto's eyes widened before he grabbed his chopsticks and parried her strike._

_She still crashed into him though._

_Tayuya stood over him, her eyes burning with the fires from hell. "You. Die. Now!" with that, she raised her hand over her head and slammed her right hand towards Naruto's face. He managed to kick her off at the last second. He got up quickly and held one of his chopsticks as if it was a kunai._

_Tayuya got up and ran over to the counter. She abandoned one of her chopsticks and grabbed her bowl. She held it up as if she was going to use it as some sort of shield. Naruto ran over to do the same, but was cut off as Tayuya beat him to the punch. She threw the bowl to the ground, shattering it. Naruto looked at the broken pieces in horror._

"_That wasn't even yours!" Naruto said accusingly. Tayuya just shrugged her shoulders and attacked. It looked like Orochimaru's taijutsu training might finally pay off._

_It was at this moment that Ayame and Teuchi came out to see what the commotion was. They were completely befuddled at what they saw. They saw Naruto and the redhead in a fierce battle…using eating utensils. Ayame couldn't but laugh as she saw the two battle like their very lives depended on it. Teuchi was another matter. He looked down to see his broken bowl, then back up to see Naruto do a back flip over a horizontal strike. It didn't take long for him to figure out what was going on._

"_WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE!?" Teuchi boomed, his voice striking fear into all who heard it. Tayuya and Naruto froze in their exact position, both going in for a strike, to see Teuchi standing behind his ramen stand. Both quickly put their eating utensils behind their backs._

"_He started it!" Tayuya said, trying to shift the blame. Naruto gave her an offended look._

"_What the hell! You're the one who dove at ME." He said indignantly._

"_Well, you threw some food at me!"_

"_I shot some food at you because you wouldn't shut up! Also, there was no need to throw that bowl on the ground." Tayuya didn't hear the second part of Naruto's statement, as she was too angry at the first._

"_You didn't even bother to say anything, you just threw food at me you bitch monger!"_

"_Bitch monger? That doesn't even make sense. Someone who sells bitches? You really are stupid." Naruto pointed out. Ayame had finally stopped laughing, but started again after watching the two teenagers bickering. Teuchi just looked back and forth between the two. _

_He finally cut them off when he slammed his fist on the counter. Naruto and Tayuya both looked at him. "You'll both be working in the kitchen tonight."_

_**IN THE KITCHEN**_

_Tayuya and Naruto were diligently scrubbing dishes. They had started arguing as soon as they started washing, but stopped when they each got a whack to the back of the head. They each stopped washing for a moment to stare at each other. Tayuya chose to speak first._

"_Bastard."_

"_Bitch."_

_They growled at each other before finally turning back to wash some more dishes._

**END FLASHBACK**

"Ah good times…" Ayame said while she leaned on the counter. She looked over to see Chouji and Sai get up. "You two need to leave so soon?" Chouji decided to answer for both himself and Sai.

"Yeah, Ino insisted that we meet up with her before the wedding. I'm not really sure why she needs to see both of us though." Chouji said thoughtfully. Sai gave a quick wave.

"I'll see you guys at the wedding." With that, Sai and Chouji departed. There was a moment of silence that was broken by Sakura.

"That was a very dramatic story. I'm amazed at how either of you survived." She said while taking some of Sasuke's food. She was referring to the battle between the snake sannin and the two curse seal users. "What bugs me is what did you two do when you got out of Orochimaru's lair. You were both heavily injured right?" She asked. Tayuya nodded in affirmation.

"Yeah, we had to lean on each other for support as we were walking out of his lair. We went to a village that was close bye. A few days later, Naruto ran into me, with the two perverts appearing soon after."

"Tayuya, you wound me by calling me a perv." Naruto immediately got off his stool and pointed at the newcomer angrily.

"You! You were supposed to stop by 2 days ago! I don't think you've ever been this late before."

"He'll always be that way." Sasuke put in.

"What's the excuse this time? Saved a ant from a puddle? Out looking for the meaning of life?" Sakura added casually. The newcomer put a hand to the back of his head.

"You know me too well." He said. Naruto let out a sigh.

"Well, at least you showed up Kakashi. Better late than never." Kakashi smiled behind his mask.

"Well, I figured you would be here. I also brought along a guest." Kakashi said, pointing over his shoulder. Everyone looked behind Kakashi to see a member of ANBU walking up to them.

"Tenzo. I never see you around anymore." Naruto said while walking over to shake his hand.

"Naruto, how many times must I tell you, call me Yamato." He said shaking the boys hand. Naruto gave a short laugh and looked over at Kakashi.

"I can't believe your still wearing a mask, even on this special day. Well, what I wanted to give you was this 'special mask' that Shikamaru's soon-to-be wife gave me." Naruto pulled out a mask that had a picture of some wind blowing along some leaves. "You do plan to wear it, right?" Naruto asked. Kakashi just shrugged his shoulders.

"I'll put it on when I change for the wedding." Sakura opened her mouth to ask Kakashi a question, but he already knew what she was going to ask. "No Sakura, I don't plan on being late."

"You better not." She said dangerously, her eyes flashing bright white.

"What about you Yamato?" Tayuya asked. "Are you planning on attending?" Yamato shook his head.

"I won't be able to make it. I have several other duties that I must take care off." He said ruefully. Tayuya nodded, looking at her food briefly before looking back up.

"Hey, is it true Naruto asked about me when you guys met Sasuke again after 2 and a half years?" Yamato nodded at Tayuya's question. "What did he say?"

Yamato stroked his chin, ignoring the look of horror on Naruto's face. "I believe the words. 'Where's that annoying potty mouthed bitch! She owes me some money for running off!' That was what you said wasn't it Naruto?" Yamato said absentmindedly. Not realizing what he had done, he looked over to see Tayuya staring dangerously at Naruto. 'Oh shit, Naruto's screwed.'

"You know," Sakura started, trying to think of how to rescue Naruto, who was now being strangled. "I was never told how you actually met up with Tayuya and Sasuke after their battle with Orochimaru." Tayuya let go of Naruto's neck briefly to remember the biggest chance meeting of her life.

"Now that actually is kinda funny in how it happened…"

**FLASHBACK**

_Tayuya crawled out of the hole that was formerly Orochimaru's resting spot. Soon after, she collapsed on the ground. Sasuke soon came up after her. He leaned on his sword for support. Kabuto leaped out of the hole, as he was still in tip top condition. Tayuya tilted her head to look at Kabuto._

"_I suppose you want us to thank you?" She said. Kabuto simply pushed his glasses up._

"_There is no need to do anything of the sort Tayuya. I'm surprised you two are so tired." He said, looking from her over to Sasuke._

"_Well, we were taking quite a beat down while you were off doing who knows what! Both of us would be dead if you hadn't intervened when you did." Tayuya deadpanned. She then let her face fall back to the ground. Kabuto shrugged and turned around as if to leave, but was stopped when Sasuke pointed his sword at him._

"_Sasori never put you under a binding jutsu did he? Your stronger than you let on." The two men had a short staring match before Sasuke fell to the ground. Kabuto walked over to stand above him._

"_What if I am?"_

"_Why didn't you kill him? You had is absolute trust and could have killed him easily." Sasuke said, trying to push himself up. He soon gave up. "Just how strong are you?"_

"_Does it really matter?" Kabuto asked. Sasuke nodded his head._

"_Why did you wait for us to try and fight him? I'm sure you suspected, just as Orochimaru did."_

"_Someone asked me to not kill Orochimaru, but to let his 'student' take care of the master." Sasuke's face contorted slightly._

"_Who are you really working for? Akatsuki? Why the hell didn't you ever kill him before!?" Sasuke shouted. There was so much he wanted to ask. The problem was, Kabuto had no obligation to answer any of his questions._

"_I'll humor you for a little while. When Orochimaru was still partners with Sasori, I worked under both of them. When Orochimaru left Akatsuki, I was torn on who to work for. You could say I settled for half-way. I still acted as a Akatsuki spy, but I also helped out Orochimaru." Kabuto explained. Sasuke shook his head as if he didn't believe what Kabuto was saying._

"_They want him dead, why the hell didn't you tell them where he was? Didn't someone know you were still in contact with Orochimaru?"_

"_One person knew for sure, but I'm sure that some others suspected. Sasori can be very persuasive. At least he was when he was still alive. He once said that I was much too valuable to kill. Beisdes, I had recruited one of their best members for them." Sasuke finally managed to sit up. He looked at the ground before finally looking up at Kabuto. Tayuya wasn't even really paying attention._

"_Who knew for sure?" Sasuke inquired._

"_Why, it was the person who I recommended to Akatsuki. It was also the same person who asked me not to kill Orochimaru. It was none other than Uchiha Itachi." Sasuke's face contorted in rage at the mention of his brother. Kabuto smirked at Sasuke's reaction. "He said that if you couldn't kill Orochimaru at this point in time, then what was the point of letting you live."_

"_So he set this up as a test for me!?" Kabuto didn't answer for a moment before he finally nodded._

"_A test that you passed." Kabuto said, turning around to walk away. He looked back over his shoulder at the angered Sasuke. "Also, you don't need to search him out anymore. He said that if you survived, he would seek you out in due time. Now, I have some business to take care off. I'm sure we'll see each other again in the future." Kabuto finished. He threw something up in the air that looked vaguely like a ring before he caught it and ran off. Tayuya sat up and looked over to Sasuke._

"_So what are we doing now?" She asked, giving Sasuke a blank stare. Sasuke clenched his fist before he looked back at Tayuya._

"_I'm going to a near bye town to think of my next move. Are you going to come or not?" He said while walking over to Tayuya. He extended his hand to Tayuya._

"_Might as well." She said, sounding very resigned. She then grabbed his hand as he helped her up. "Lets go."_

_**A FEW DAYS LATER, OUTSKIRTS OF A NAMELESS TOWN**_

_Tayuya waited impatiently for the Uchiha to return. He decided to go into town one more time and find out where all the near bye towns and villages were. So far, he had been gone nearly 1 hour. She sighed and started pacing, only to wince after a minute. She looked at her ankle in frustration. Orochimaru had landed a pretty solid it on her that sent her flying right before Kabuto intervened. She heard something crack in her foot when she crashed into a wall._

_She had managed to hide it well at first, but on the second day in the village, which was yesterday, Sasuke had pointed out that she was wincing every few steps. When Sasuke pointed it out, she had kicked a rock on the ground at being found out, but cried out in pain, as it was her bad leg. Sasuke just smirked at her predicament. Funny part was, he was kind enough to help her the rest of the day, like letting her rest every few minutes as they were walking through the town. When she asked "what the fuck is wrong with you?", he shot her an odd look._

"_You helped me defeat Orochimaru, which inadvertently led to me getting closer to avenging my clan, so I can help you for one day. Come on, we need to get some new clothes." He said, motioning her to get up. Sasuke brought her to a local clothes store where they picked out some new attire._

_That all happened yesterday; today, they were finally ready to head off to who knows where. "God, what is taking him so fucking-" Tayuya whipped around as she heard the sound of leaves and branches rustling not far off. She immediately saw who the culprit was. After all, it was very hard to miss someone with bright blonde hair traveling towards her. 'No fucking way…of all the people, it has to be him. Why the hell does it have to be Naruto' she groaned inside her head. Tayuya quickly turned her back to the boy as he approached, hoping he would walk right past her. She had no such luck._

"_Hey there, do you live around here?" Naruto asked. Tayuya shook her head quickly, praying that he would just go away. "That's too bad." There was a slight pause. "Is your foot alright?" Again, Tayuya nodded. "It looks like its all wrapped up. Are you sure-" Tayuya had enough of the questions and turned around to give the runt a piece of her mind._

"_GOD, will you shut the fucking hell up!" Tayuya shouted at the top of her lungs, her face mere inches from the blondes face. She noticed at this moment that she was actually shorter than him. "Damn, last time we met you were a runt." Tayuya shut her mouth as she realized what she had just done. If Naruto didn't know who she was when she yelled at him, he most certainly did now._

"_Y-You. What are you doing here!?" Naruto asked quickly. Tayuya snorted at his question. _

"_Like I would tell you. Why are you here? Did they kick you out for being so weak!?" She sneered._

"_Why you-"_

"_Naruto." Tayuya and Naruto took a step back from each other to look at the new comer. "What are you doing here?" Sasuke said, looking from him to Tayuya. Naruto grinned before he gave his response._

"_Sasuke…I came to confirm a report that came in yesterday that Orochimaru's hideout was destroyed and that he might be dead." Tayuya scowled at Naruto._

"_So you tell him, but not me!?" She shouted, getting up in Naruto's face. Naruto leaned away from her._

"_Why the hell would I tell you? More importantly, when was the last time you brushed your teeth? Your breath reeks." Tayuya clenched her fists before taking a few steps back._

"_It was foolish of you to come here alone, Naruto." Tayuya said, putting extra emphasis and venom on his name. "We won't have a problem taking care of you, even if we are not fully recovered yet." Tayuya said smirking. She looked back to Sasuke, expecting to see him pulling his sword out, but he for once looked uncertain._

"_What makes you think I came alone?" Naruto said slyly. Tayuya just laughed at what Naruto said._

"_Funny, I don't see anyone." Tayuya said arrogantly, looking left and right. Tayuya's jolly mood was interrupted by Sasuke._

"_I do." He said, pointing up above Naruto. Tayuya also looked up to see two figures jump from branch. As they landed, a look of horror made its way onto her face.._

"_The clever fox never comes unprepared." Naruto said sagely, Jiraiya and Kakashi at his sides. Kakashi walked past Tayuya to stand in front of Sasuke._

"_I see that you've grown Sasuke." He said calmly. His one eye moved to Sasuke's waist. "I see that you have also acquired a new weapon. Do you mind if I look at it?" Sasuke didn't really have a option. He wasn't in any condition to fight Kakashi, especially without the curse seal to help him out. He simply turned his head away, which Kakashi took as a 'yes'. He carefully took the sword from Sasuke's belt and examined it for a moment. He walked back over to where Jiraiya and Naruto were. He handed the sword over to Jiraiya. He examined it briefly before sticking it into the ground._

"_A very nice gift. I'm surprised Orochimaru never asked for it back." He said staring at Sasuke. Sasuke stared right back._

"_He won't have a chance to anymore, I can assure you." Sasuke replied. Jiraiya let out a deep sigh._

"_So it's true then. Its ironic that just like he how he killed Sarutobi, he was killed by his own student." Tayuya waved her hand in the air._

"_Hey, I helped kill him too! Don't make it look like the asshole did everything." Tayuya said, sounding very proud. Jiraiya looked at her recognition._

"_Ah, you're the girl that Naruto ran into so long ago. He had some interesting words to say about you." Tayuya looked over to Naruto angrily, who was rubbing the back of his head with his right hand. "That's not really important right now though." He said._

"_Yes, what is important is deciding what to do with you two." Kakashi said gravely. The silence that followed was deafening. Tayuya looked over to Sasuke, who looked right back at her. Could it really get any worse?_

"_The one who will be making that decision will be me." A woman called out. Tayuya's eyes nearly bugged out when the other surviving sannin jumped into her view. Tsunade was also accompanied by the idiot who she had almost killed on her mission to retrieve Sasuke._

_Shikamaru's eyes widened at seeing Tayuya, but quickly went back to normal as he shook his head. "I suppose after meeting a immortal I shouldn't be too surprised to see that your alive, should I?" Tayuya stayed silent at this remark. Naruto chose to ask a question that was on everyone's mind._

"_Old granny Tsunade, why are you even here?" Naruto asked. Tsunade walked over to Naruto and gave him a quick bop on the head, causing him to slam into the ground._

"_I came here to see if my old teammate was truly dead. I also brought Shikamaru along incase we I ran into any trouble along the way." She looked over at the two sound nin. "Sasuke, I see your still alive. I don't believe I know who your companion is though." Tsunade said, giving the girl a pointed look, as if she was expecting a answer._

"_I ain't telling you shit!" Tayuya answered rudely. Tsunade simply looked over at Jiraiya._

"_Her name is Tayuya Darius. She was one of the 4 people who kept the barrier up when Orochimaru was fighting our old teacher. She was also involved in the mission where they went to bring Sasuke to Orochimaru." Jiraiya reported. Tayuya looked at the old man in shock, then in anger._

"_What to do, what to do…" Tsunade said out loud._

"_Tsunade, I say that we bring Sasuke back." Naruto said, is tone surprisingly serious. "Even if he doesn't want to go back. I made a promise, and I plan to keep it." Tsunade was expecting this from Naruto, but she didn't expect Shikamaru to also voice his opinion on the matter._

"_Hokage, I also say that we bring Sasuke back...if he is willing come back. He could become a very powerful ninja with all he's learned, and probably knows some key info on the sound. If not…" Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders at the last part. "Do what you must."_

"_I'm surprised you agree with Naruto." Tsunade said._

"_Its too troublesome to hold grudges. Forgive and forget is what I say." Shikamaru said, looking over to Sasuke. "I will judge him based on what he is now."_

"_Kakashi, Jiraiya, what are your thoughts?" Jiraiya just shrugged his shoulders while Kakashi stroked his chin._

"_It's your call Hokage. Though I do think Sasuke should get a second chance." He said looking over to said boy. Tsunade noticed that there was a tiny bit of coldness in Kakashi's good eye, but she could have been wrong. Tsunade looked over at Sasuke. _

"_Well, Sasuke, what will it be?" She asked._

_Sasuke wasn't stupid. He knew that he could very easily just be killed for going to Orochimaru. He didn't have any chance of running here right now. He didn't really have much of a choice. How could he kill Itachi and avenge his clan if he was dead? "I accept." Tsunade nodded._

"_Right then. I know we can get some villagers to accept Sasuke back if we say he helped kill Orochimaru. Well, at least enough people that you won't have people attacking you left and right. The ninja won't be as gullible. They know you left willingly and will probably not like you for a long time. So…you won't try to be killed, but you will be shunned for a long time, maybe the rest of your life." Tsunade then turned to Tayuya. She stared at Tayuya for while, which the redhead found unnerving._

"_Why the hell are you staring at me?" She said angrily. The 5th Hokage chose to ignore the girl's tone._

"_You are another story. You helped kill the 3rd Hokage, Sarutobi. Even though it was indirect, you are one of the more serious enemy's of the village. There's not really too many viable options for you." Tayuya chose this moment to offer her opinion on the matter._

"_Why not just let me go?" Tsunade smirked at the girl's response._

"_Ha, don't make me laugh. As a enemy ninja, you should be killed where you stand. There is no point to interrogating you if we already have Sasuke for information. You are only a threat to us." Tsunade said with a tone of finality._

_Tayuya looked at the ground, not wanting to face the slug sannin. Was this really it for her? She had just survived the fight of a lifetime, only to be killed off by a stroke of bad luck? She was snapped out of her reverie when she heard someone step in front of her. She looked up to see none other than Naruto in front of her._

_Tsunade rubbed her temples. She had a feeling she wasn't going to like what he was going to say. "Naruto-"_

"_Please don't kill her" He said quietly. He had a pleading look on his face that was so hard to resist._

"_Naruto…why are you doing this?" Tsunade asked tiredly. She really didn't want to deal with this, especially not right now. Naruto turned around to look at Tayuya before he looked back over to Tsunade._

"_You don't always need a reason to help people grandma, that's my way of the ninja." Jiraiya voiced an obvious question that Naruto probably didn't think about._

"_And what do you suppose we should do with her Naruto?"_

"_Uhhhh…"_

"_We could bring her back to the village, giving her a fake name, a new look, and saying that she's a refugee." Shikamaru offered. "I'm sure you just don't want to let her go Hokage." Shikamaru added as an after thought. Naruto's face lit up at the idea, so he quickly nodded_

"_So you are also alright with her coming back to Konoha Shikamaru?" Kakashi asked. Shikamaru nodded in response. "Well, if Shikamaru and Naruto approve, I am also alright with it Hokage." Tsunade closed her eyes and let out a deep breath._

'_Well…I guess we can let her in…"_

"_Ohhh, don't you care what I think Tsunade, your old teammate?"_

"_Knowing you Jiraiya, you would probably just say yes because you think she looks pretty. Now shut up for a second so I can think…" There was a long silence where everyone could hear the chirping of the birds and rustling of the leaves_

_Tsunade looked at everyone briefly before opening her mouth. "Okay, here's how it will go. All of you will take a long route back to Konoha so that I may get back there first. Shizune is still covering for me, saying that I am sick, so if I go back to normal duty tomorrow, you should also arrive back then for a 'fake' debriefing. Shikamaru, you will also come back with me." Shikamaru nodded in affirmation. "We will all setup a fake meeting for all the ninjas. At this meeting, Naruto and Shikamaru will vouch for Sasuke to be let back into the village, as both of you vouched for him here. I will also say that Tayuya, who will be known as Krystal, is a refugee that will be living here. I will then explain that we will tell the people Sasuke was on a secret mission to assassinate Orochimaru. I will have all the ninja vouch for this if they are every asked about it. Got it?" Everyone nodded, except for Tayuya._

"_Why the hell do I get a weird name like 'Krystal?" She asked. Jiraiya chose to answer this question._

"_Krystal was going to be the name of Tsunade's first child. Back in the day, she would tell me and Orochimaru all about what her children's names were going to be and what each of them were going to do." Jiraiya said with a sad smile, remembering when his former teammate was still one of his close friends. Tsunade looked over at the pervert with a smile._

"_I'm surprised you still remember that. Anyway, I think it's time you all fill out your roles. Get going." Kakashi, Shikamaru, and Sasuke all jumped off into the trees. While Jiraiya and Tsunade stayed around to make sure everyone got off. They were still waiting for Tayuya and Naruto to go. Naruto turned around to look at Tayuya's foot, then he returned to the original way he was facing and knelt down._

"_Hop on." Was all Naruto said. Her answered was a foot to his head, sending him crashing to the ground. Jiraiya and Tsunade looked on with amusement. "What the hell was that for!?" he shouted as he got back up. Tayuya crossed her arms and turned her head away._

"_I don't want any help from a second rate ninja." She said, not even bothering to look at him. For some reason, Naruto let her words get to him._

"_Second rate ninja? I'll have you know I killed a member of Akatsuki!"_

"_Don't care, your still a second rate ninja to me. I can travel on my own." Tayuya finished. She then crouched down to jump into the waiting trees, but her ankle buckled and she fell to the ground. "Fuck!"_

"_Don't need help huh?" Naruto said coyly. The red head glared back at him as she started to get back up. She opened her mouth, but closed it instead of saying anything. She closed her eyes briefly before opening them._

"_I'll walk." She said. Naruto stared at Tayuya incredulously._

"_With that bad ankle? You've got to be kidding me." Apparently Tayuya wasn't kidding, as she walked right past Naruto with her head held eye. Naruto watched her for a moment before he ran up to her and picked her up like a bride. You can guess what her reaction was._

"_Put me down you fucking asshole! Put me down dammit!" She bellowed. She tried to move around, but didn't have much luck._

"_We can either go like this or you can climb onto my back. What's it going to be?" Naruto said with finality. Tayuya scowled and crossed her arms angrily. Naruto waited a few moments before he added another piece of information. "If you'll keep scowling like that, your going to get more wrinkles than that old lady over there." Naruto said playfully, motioning his head toward Tsunade._

"_What did you say Naruto?" She asked, her eyes clouding over in anger. Naruto shook his head quickly._

"_Nothing!" He looked down at the girl still in his arms. "So?" Tayuya was silent for a moment._

"_I'll take the second option." She answered curtly. She purposely tried to not look at him as she answered. Naruto smiled as he put her down and knelt down yet again._

"_Hop on."_

"_You better not try anything funny." Tayuya said dangerously as she climbed on Naruto's back._

_Naruto looked over his shoulder. "Like what?"_

"_Just go." She said quickly. The two remaining sannin watched the final pair jump off into the trees. Jiraiya turned to Tsunade to ask her a question that he wanted to do in private._

"_So why did you give her the name Krystal?"_

"_You should know that my first child was going to be a girl and have red hair."_

"_I'm sure that's not the only reason. What was the real reason?" Tsunade laughed at Jiraiya's question._

"_Lets just say I think that girl has potential to become another precious person for Naruto."_

"_Oh? Would you like to make a wager then?" Jiraiya asked nonchalantly. Tsunade was easily reeled in._

"_I'll say those two hookup within 2 and a half year." She said proudly._

"_Okay, I'll take that bet. What will the winner get Tsunade?"_

"_I'll be sure to tell you what I want when I win Jiraiya." With a short laugh, Tsunade jumped off into the trees, with Jiraiya soon following.._

**END FLASHBACK**

"So that meeting was all planned out? Gosh, I never would have thought that." Sakura mumbled, quite shell-shocked. "Well, at least it all worked out somehow." She said happily, taking some more of Sasuke's food.

"So how was the trip back to Konoha Naruto?" Kakashi asked. "None of us saw you behind us, but we did hear short bursts of you two arguing."

"I know, it was quite troublesome while I was still traveling with Kakashi and Sasuke. Even after I split with you all when Tsunade and Jiraiya caught, both myself and Tsunade heard you two for about another 5 minutes." Everyone looked over at Shikamaru with his soon to be wife walking towards them. Shikamaru's fiancée decided to speak her mind.

"Oh? Blondie and his older girlfriend than him didn't get along at first?"

"Shut up! Your blonde too." Naruto said angrily. Shikamaru shook his head at Naruto's reaction.

"I don't know why we chose girls who are both older than us and bossy to boot."

"Yeah, but I got the smart man and Tayuya got the dumb one." Tayuya threw a chopstick at the blonde girl.

"Screw you Temari!" Said girl just laughed at the redhead's reaction.

**END CHAPTER 3**

WOHOOO, finally finished with chapter 3! Now I can get to the area that I've wanted to do for awhile, the Tayuya back story in Konoha!

I've realized as I've written more and more that I'm more of a scene writer. I have certain scene's in my mind that I have planned way ahead, just because I'm so excited to do them. This is one reason why I decided to write the story the way I did. I saw that picture of Tayuya smiling and said 'That's it! I need to write a story where she's like that with Naruto' since I luuuuuuve unusual pairings. Thing is, you can't just magically jump to a scene without telling a back-story. Right now, I have the present events all planned out, but I feel as if the back-story is probably the most important aspect. I also wanted to write my fic a little different., than the norm. It's a minor quirk I've always had. Since I wrote it this way, it lets me enjoy typing the entire thing, not just to get to some specific scene.

I now know and have a much better grasp where this story if going then when I first began I can say, or even when I planned it. In the first stages, I just had the idea of how I wanted the story to go. I feel that now I have a better idea of how I can divide up the story. I find it kinda funny that I mix 2-3 time flashbacks per chapter when it would be just as easy, if not easier, just to do 1 flashback per chapter. Its my first multichapter story, so I think I still have a long way to go, like if I want to put in all the suffixes.

Speaking of going back, I've had multiple people tell me I've had a few grammar and spelling errors, and I thank those people who have pointed that out. I was wondering if I could get some betas for my story. I would really appreciate any kind of help I can get in this aspect, as I can't catch every mistake I make on the first time through. So if anyone would be kind enough to be my Beta, just send me a message please.


	4. First Day, First Friend

Did I tell you that I don't own Naruto?

AN: I want to thank my Beta Chris Nemo for checking over this chapter and all my previous one, which I will be uploading soon. I also want to personally thank BiqQuise, who offered to be my beta, but I never really got back to him.

Present

"Present Talk"

_Flashback_

"_Flashback Talk"_

**CHAPTER 4: First Day, First Friend.**

"So how is the dysfunctional couple doing on this fine day?"

"Cut the sarcasm Temari. Besides, aren't you two quite the dysfunctional couple? I know that opposites attract, but aren't you two a little extreme?" The redhead said back to the blonde.

"Ah! But the power of love knows no bounds in this beautiful weather!" Kakashi put his hand to his forehead at the loud yell.

"I'm leaving now."

"But-" Naruto's protest was cut off as he saw non other than Gai running towards the stand. He was dressed in his normal green jump suit that he had been wearing since who knows when…only he had a tie on.

"Don't worry, I still need to talk to you two, so I'll see you before the wedding." With that, Kakashi did a single hand seal and left in a puff of smoke. Sakura also took this opportunity to make her exit.

"Well, I need to take care of some things at the hospital. Come Sasuke." For once, Sasuke didn't argue and walked off with Sakura, leaving the 2 couples to deal with the oncoming Gai. And Yamato, but he wasn't really bothered by Gai. Naruto looked over to Shikamaru briefly. They nodded at each other.

"Well-"

"Don't even think about it Naruto." Tayuya said dangerously. There was also desperation mixed in. After all, Gai loved talking about how wonderfully wonderful young love was. That was one thing that bugged her.

Plus his voice was way too enthusiastic at times.

Gai stopped his mad dash for the Ichiraku a few feet before the actual stand. He looked around briefly before scratching his head. "Where has my eternal rival run off to?" he asked. Yamato decided to answer his question, as he figured none of the children would answer Gai. He still considered them children, even though they were all adults

"He said he had to take care of something important."

"Ah yes…that makes perfect sense…I'm sure he wasn't trying to run away at all!" Gai's voice boomed. He then looked at Shikamaru, his teeth blinding the shadow users vision. "So, are you excited about the big day?"

"I'm more happy that the blonde bride will return to normal after this damn wedding." He looked over at Temari, who gave him a questioning look. "At least she wasn't with child during the whole 3 month fiasco." Shikamaru said thankfully.

"Gaara would have skinned you alive. He has enough trouble dealing with Kankuro's little rascal Chiyo." Naruto said with a laugh, remembering the time the Kazekage was forced to watch over the child who was a year and a half at the time. She ended up ruining a VERY important document. It was said that Kankuro was chased around Suna for over 2 hours with a very displeased Gaara at his tail.

"Besides," Temari said, walking over to Shikamaru to put her arm around him. "I plan to enjoy married life for awhile before I worry about having any kids." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and went over to talk to Tayuya. Naruto went over to talk with the men.

"In all honesty, I'm surprised she hasn't forced you to go to the wedding really early." Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders at Naruto's statement while Yamato took the opportunity to add a tidbit of information.

"In suna, it is customary for lucky couple to arrive only about 1 hour to 30 minutes before the wedding starts. It's also important to dress in your night wear the day of the wedding." Gai's face lit up in understanding.

"Ah! So that is why you're wearing such unique clothes. A wife beater and some shorts are quite the sleeping attire." Gai sad, nodding sagely. Shikamaru looked at him incredulously, not sure if he was being sarcastic or not. Naruto looked over to Temari, then back at the small group of men.

"Gaara had already told me that Suna had some interesting customs, so I wasn't very surprised to see her coming here in her nightwear." He said. Naruto then nudged Shikamaru with his elbow. "Did she 'tone down' a bit for the big day?" Shikamaru gave Naruto a disgusted look.

"You've become more and more like your teachers over the years, haven't you Naruto?" He said, sounding slightly offended.

"Hey, I was just kidding." Naruto said, putting his hands up in defense. Gai decided it was a good moment to get away from this unhealthy subject.

"Why does it have to be this way though?"

"What do you mean Gai?" Yamato asked.

"Why must it be that sand marital customs are practiced here in leaf village? Shouldn't we practice our customs here?" Gai asked, sounding confused at the prospect of practicing another village's customs. Shikamaru opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by Tayuya.

"Its part of a deal." She said. The 4 men looked at her dumbfounded. "Think about it dipshits, it's a inter village marriage. The two villages meet a compromise for the wedding. One village will use its customs while the other village will hold the wedding." She lectured to the men. Her ears were filled with 'ohs' and 'ahs'. "Idiots."

"I agree, you chose quite the idiot Tayuya." Temari said. Tayuya knew she had used the indirect insult to Tayuya just to bug her, and she easily took the bait.

"Well, you got quite the catch. You'll end up doing everything around the house." She said viciously. There were a few protests in the background, but the girls ignored them. Naruto sighed as he saw the two women start to argue like drunken friends at a bar.

"Damn, they look like men who have slammed back one too many drinks with the way they're arguing." Yamato said, his eyes furrowed at the use of vulgar language by Tayuya.

"Yes! It was much like the very first day for Tayuya in the village where Naruto had to show her around!" Gai said.

"Hey, don't say that so fondly Gai." Naruto said. There was a few moments of silence before the weight of what Gai said hit Naruto. "Wait, it was YOU who was following us." Naruto's question was rewarded with the Nice 'Gai' pose. "I thought it was Kakashi…"

"No! It was I! And I don't mind telling you about it. Although it is important to note that my eternal rival was with me, but he didn't do much watching. It was all me."

**FLASHBACK**

_Tsunade looked at the two men standing before her in the Hokage's office. "So are we clear on what you are supposed to do?" she asked. One of the two raised his hand. "What is it Gai?"_

"_Hokage, I must ask you why we are to follow Naruto and…Krystal is it? That's quite a exotic name." The other man in the room chose to point out the obvious point._

"_Well Gai, she is a refugee from a different country." Kakashi put in._

"_Where is she from then?"_

"_That's confidential Gai." Tsunade said sternly. "As I said, I want you to follow Naruto and Krystal to make sure they don't encounter any trouble. It is also imperative that you are not seen." Gai looked at her skeptically before striking the nice guy pose._

"_You can count on me." With that, Gai ran out of the office. Kakashi stayed behind a moment to speak with the Hokage._

"_Not everyone is buying the story, are they?" Kakashi asked. Tsunade stood up and looked up at the statues of the former Hokages._

"_Would you?" Tsunade asked, not really expecting a answer. "A girl is suddenly just accepted, with no information on her background? Of course there will be ninja who don't believe it. We will speak of this later, for now just go after Gai." Without a word, Kakashi left the Hokages office, leaving her to think on the recent events._

_**ON THE ROOFTOPS**_

"_Have you found them yet?" Kakashi asked, his eye looking up briefly from his book._

"_I have not. Do you have any idea where your student might be?" Gai asked. Kakashi put his book away and stroked his chin._

"_I would guess he would take her to the ramen stand, but I don't think so this time." Kakashi said. He remembered Naruto complaining that he took her out for ramen the day before the debriefing, but it didn't go so well._

"_Wait! I see them." Gai said, looking at a yellow haired youth and his walking companion. "I must admit, Krystal has beautiful highlights. She truly is a flower to behold." Gai added enthusiastically. Kakashi nodded, noting that Tayuya's choice of blue hair with red highlights was very intriguing. He crouched down next to Gai._

"_Well, time to start the assignment."_

_**DOWN ON THE STREET**_

_Tayuya, otherwise known as Krystal to everyone else, was looking around the leaf village with little interest. Even though she would be staying here for who knows how long, she still didn't really care. She gave a sidelong glance at her companion. She had no idea why Naruto had decided to take up the task of giving her a tour of the village, but didn't really care enough to ask him why._

"_So why did you decide on blue hair with red highlights?" Naruto asked. It was quite odd to see Shizune go scrambling for actual materials to change Tayuya's. It was quite a hassle for her to add the highlights. Shizune was also let in on the secret. When she was told who Tayuya really was, she had a frown on her face, but didn't really say anything about the matter._

"_Why do you wish to know?" She asked. She absently rubbed her neck, where her curse seal would appear if Shizune didn't cover it up_

"_Just wondering. That's all." Naruto answered, calmly, hoping not to get any sass. It appeared that he lucked out on this one._

"_You could say I have a affinity to blue things." Tayuya said, fingering a strand of blue hair._

"_So does than mean your good a water jutsu's?" Naruto asked, trying very hard to be stupid and annoying. Tayuya gave Naruto a angry look._

"_Do you want to find out shit for brains!?" Naruto waggled his finger in front of her face._

"_Ah, ah, ah. Remember, your not a ninja here." Naruto smirked, rubbing it in Tayuya's face. At this, Tayuya punched Naruto in the ribs._

"_Don't rub it in." She growled. It was a very sore subject that Tayuya could not do any thing remotely like being a ninja._

"_It doesn't take much for you to make people mad, does it Naruto?" A voice called out to the pair. Naruto and Tayuya looked over to see where the voice originated. Tayuya froze as she saw the pupiless eyes._

"_Yeah, well…she's not the best company Neji." Naruto answered glumly. "I don't believe you two have met. Krystal, this is Neji." Neji walked up to Tayuya and extended his arm. Though she may not have been doing it on purpose, but she was playing the perfect frightful damsel. Slowly, Tayuya shook his hand, not sure if he was going to recognize her. If he did…_

"_Krystal was it? It's nice to meet you." He said civilly. He then turned to Naruto. "More importantly, what did you do to her?" Neji intoned._

"_Nothing! I didn't do anything!" Naruto said quickly. Neji gave him a skeptical look._

"_Right." He deadpanned. He turned from Naruto to look at his companion. "Did he do anything bad to you?" Neji asked. She found his gaze unsettling, but wouldn't miss a chance to get back at Naruto for poking fun at her._

"_He touched my butt!" Tayuya said brutally, not very much like the scared girl she was before. Neji closed his eyes and opened them to give Naruto a stern look. Naruto was completely shocked at her comment._

"_Naruto, I thought you were above such things…"_

"_I didn't! You have to believe me!" Neji sighed at Naruto's response._

"_I guess it's expected after seeing who your teachers are."_

"_I swear I didn't touch her!" Naruto said loudly, a little to loud. Several passer byes gave Naruto a dirty look while mothers pulled their children along faster. He felt his face heat up. "Come on Neji, you know me." Naruto's plea fell on deaf ears._

"_Just don't do it again Naruto." Neji reprimanded. Naruto looked over to Tayuya, who looked like a cat who had just caught a big fat mouse. He pointed to her, waving his finger around like it was some kind of weapon._

"_She's making it up to get back at me."_

"_Oh, so you did do something to her then?" He said raising his eyebrow at Naruto. "Well, as much as I would love to find it out, I have other business I need to attend to."_

"_Wow, I never knew you could be sarcastic Neji." Naruto said in awe. Neji simply shook his head, his hair waving behind him._

"_I just came bye because Hinata asked me to check in on you two. As I said before, I have things that must be taken care of, do I must bid you goodbye." Neji said, walking past Tayuya and Naruto to who knows where. Tayuya and Naruto looked at each other._

"_Did you really need to do that Krystal?"_

"_I thought it was funny."_

"_Well it wasn't. Now Neji thinks I might be a pervert."_

"_Please, he's a Hyuuga. Everyone knows that they can see through most lies."_

"_Something tells me your good a lying."_

"_Maybe." With that Tayuya laughed a little and ran on ahead. She turned around to look at Naruto, the brief happy moment passing quickly. "Well? Hurry up!" Naruto looked at the girl in front of him strangely. For a moment, she had a completely different demeanor. It was as if she was happy for the moment. Naruto quickly wrote it off as his imagination._

"_Yeah, yeah…" Naruto said, walking to catch up. "Well the hell do you look so excited? Its kinda creepy." Tayuya looked at him dumbly._

"_It gives me more chances to annoy the crap outta you. I'm sure I'll do it so much that I'll never have to deal with you again." She said. With that, she walked through a crowd, hoping to lose Naruto. She was disappointed when he caught up._

"_Can't you be a little grateful? I practically saved your life." Naruto said. Tayuya just snorted at this._

"_No one asked you to do that for me. Speaking if which, why the hell did you care about saving me? You got back Sasuke, so that should be enough for you right now, right?" Tayuya questioned. Naruto looked at all the people passing bye and the children playing in the street._

"_I still have many things to accomplish and things I need to do. Even if I am captured and tortured, I will escape to complete my goals." Naruto said fondly._

"_Oh really? Once you complete your goal, which sounds more like a dream to me, what will you do?" Tayuya asked, somewhat interested in where this was going. She didn't even notice the fact that he completely ignored her question._

"_Once I achieve my dream, I will continue to live it for as long as I can." Naruto said, looking off towards a mountain. Tayuya also saw the mountain and noticed several faces on it._

"_And what is that dream?"_

"_I will become Hokage!" Tayuya couldn't help herself, she burst out laughing. It was hard to stop the tears from streaming down her eyes. "What's so funny?" Tayuya continued to laugh for a few more moments before composing herself._

"_You become the leader of this village?" Tayuya said, trying very hard not to laugh some more. "How is that not funny. Moreover, what makes you think you have what it takes to become Hokage?" Tayuya asked. She was shocked to see the serious vibe Naruto's whole body sent across._

"_Tayuya, do you understand how people become truly powerful? It is when they have precious people and things to protect." Naruto said. Tayuya noted that this sounded exactly the opposite of what Sasuke said. "My will and drive for protecting my precious people will be enough for me to become Hokage, where I will then protect this entire village with my life. That is my goal." Naruto finished. He then gave Tayuya a questioning look. "Tayuya, don't you have any dreams?"_

_It was true Tayuya did have a dream, one that she held dear to her heart. However, her dream was continually crushed down. She knew her dream would never be achieved…but she always did have a little hope for it. She wasn't about to tell Naruto that of course. "Of course not! Why would I?" She shouted. Naruto was not phased by her loud voice._

"_I know you have a dream, and I plan to find out what it is." Naruto said firmly. Tayuya's eyebrows furrowed at what Naruto said._

'_What is with this kid? Does he ever give up?' she thought to herself. "Whatever. Anyway, you'll never achieve your dream." She replied, trying to make Naruto feel down yet again. It didn't work._

"_I will become Hokage one day and I will make sure that you will be there to see that old hag pass me her hat." With that, Naruto walked off towards their next location, which was the ninja academy._

_**UP ON THE ROOFTOPS**_

_Gai turned back to Kakashi, his face looking very grave. "Kakashi, those two seemed to converse oddly." Gai said. Kakashi just stared back._

"_Did you say something Gai?" Kakashi asked. This naturally made Gai go on his tangent about how cool and hip Kakashi was. Kakashi mentally wiped his head. He had led Gai off the path that he was going down. Sad part was, the day had only started. There would be still much to do. "Come Gai, lets continue."_

**END FLASHBACK**

"SO it wasn't just who was following us! I was half-right."

"That is correct Naruto. However, after you two talked for a while in the middle of the street, the day was rather uneventful. I was very disappointed." Gai said loudly.

"Riiiight." Naruto said. He looked over at Shikamaru and motioned his head in a 'Lets get the hell outta here' look. Naruto had to admit that Gai was a nice guy, but he could be rather annoying and somewhat clingy. By clingy, I mean he won't go away.

"Well, I have some wedding business to attend to. Naruto, Tayuya, do you mind coming with us?" Shikamaru said nonchalantly. Gai looked disappointed, but his face quickly brightened.

"Is that so? Well, I shouldn't hold you youthful couples back."

"Gai, their all at least 20." Yamato interjected, but Gai ran right over him.

"I shall see you later then." With that, Gai turned away and walked off. Yamato also waved and walked in a different direction, leaving the two couples alone.

"Well, we might as well head out." Tayuya said, shoving both Naruto's bowl and her own toward Ayame.

"Please come again!" The ramen girl said before carrying the bowls into the back. Temari looked up at the sun before looking back at Shikamaru.

"Lets walk for a bit, we still have plenty of time." She walked over to Shikamaru and forcible wrapped her arm around his. "Shall we?" Shikamaru sighed before finally nodding. Naruto extended his hand to Tayuya. She just looked at it strangely.

"What, do you want money or something? I already paid for the ramen bill." She said, sounding very annoyed. Naruto didn't bother to respond, he just reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her along. A small smile played on her lips.

"I hate it when you play dumb." He grumbled to himself. Temari looked over when Tayuya and Naruto caught up with them.

"So it looks like Naruto isn't the only idiot in the village." Temari said playfully. Shikamaru rolled his eyes at Temari.

"Must you try to incite them? On our wedding day no less?" He deadpanned. Temari simply stuck her tongue out. Tayuya decided to respond to Temari's insult.

"You actually look pretty stupid when you try to insult me in your pajamas." Tayuya said snidely.

"Come now, calm down little fireball." Naruto said playfully. "You shouldn't get riled up before the big wedding, its bad for you hair." Tayuya stared at Naruto.

"That was horrible. Don't ever try to make a stupid retarded joke like that again. Got it?" Tayuya said threateningly.

"That's not what you said last night." Naruto said slyly. Tayuya turned beat red as Naruto stroked his chin. "Now that I think about it, you said the exact opposite."

"Naruto!" Tayuya tried to punch him in the face, but he leaned back out of the way of the face. Tayuya was about to have another go when she was interrupted by someone they had met earlier in the day.

"Tayuya! Temari!" Moegi shouted, waving her hand and running towards them. She wasn't with Hanabi this time.

"Moegi!" Temari said happily, walking up to her. "Wow, look at you!" She added, rubbing Moegi's hair, causing the bands that held her hair due together.

"Stop Temari! I've told you, that always makes me feel like a little kid." She said, picking up the bands. She didn't have a chance to put them back in, as Tayuya plucked them from her hand. Moegi looked at her angrily.

"You will be wearing your hair down today." She said sternly, also rubbing Moegi's head with a smile. Moegi tried vainly to fend off Tayuya's deft hands but she had no luck. Soon, Temari also joined in.

"Stop it! Stop I say." Moegi cried. Soon, she gave up and just pouted with her arms crossed. The two older girls laughed. Shikamaru looked over to Naruto.

"I feel left out, but I really don't care." He said. "It does seem that those two are really fond of Moegi.

"Yeah. Temari visited Moegi whenever she came here while Moegi was Tayuya's second friend here. I was the first." Naruto said the last part proudly.

"Though at the time you could say I loathed you." Tayuya said, stopping her assault on the poor girls head. Naruto looked over at Shikamaru, scratching his head.

"Is loath the same as hate?" He inquired. Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders.

"Does it really matter to you that much? If it does, have someone else explain it to you, its much too troublesome to explain." Shikamaru deadpanned. "You know, I wonder when Moegi and Tayuya met…"

"I can tell you that story! It was about a month…"

**FLASHBACK**

_It had been a month since Tayuya had been…integrated into Konoha society. It was quite different from the Sound. No longer was she one of the more renowned ninja, she was just posing as an ordinary citizen. She had thought it would be easy to stop using chakra and the such, but she was sorely mistaken. She could no longer jump from rooftop to rooftop, otherwise she would be discovered and surely be killed._

_Tayuya walked out of her apartment before looking off towards a rooftop in the distance. She saw two figures wearing masks quickly duck. "Pfft, their still following me?" Tayuya muttered to herself._

_At the end of the second week of her life in Konoha, she had noticed that two ANBU members were trailing her as she was taking a walk. At first she didn't think much of it, but decided to keep her eyes peeled just incase it happened again. And it did happen again, everyday for the entire week. The next time she saw Naruto she went up and demanded to know why they were following her._

"_They are guarding you." Naruto said, looking at her confused. Tayuya wasn't buying it._

"_Bullshit, they don't know who I am. I ask you again, why are they following me?" Tayuya asked for a second time._

"_Their orders are to guard you."_

"_And how do you know this, oh blonde one?" Tayuya asked. Naruto gave her a simple answer._

"_I asked the old lady to assign them to guard you." Naruto said cryptically. It didn't take long for Tayuya to put together the pieces._

_If the ANBU were guarding her, they would be watching her at all times. If they were watching her at all times, that meant she couldn't use any ninja skills or do anything suspicious, otherwise it would give away who she really was. That meant- "There's no way I could escape if the ANBU is watching me at all times!"_

"_Correct." Naruto said calmly. His calm demeanor got to her._

"_So I'm just like Sasuke then?" Tayuya said furiously._

"_If you want to look at it, then yes…except your weaker than him." Naruto's very sweet smile angered her and she stormed off, not wanting to see his ugly face._

_Since then, Tayuya had been very conscious of her surroundings since then. She had also been watching how she had behaved since her conversation with Naruto._

_Tayuya heard some shouting as she approached a corner. Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she took a look around the corner to see a girl talking to a few other children. She had orange hair and appeared to be around the age of 11 or 13. She watched the event that was taking place with avid interest._

"_Why do you guys continue to make fun of me!? I'm a genin just like the rest of you!" The girl shouted at the 2 boys and one girl._

"_If you were a real ninja, you wouldn't let words get to you." One boy said, a hat covering his head. The girl stomped her foot._

"_You guys just don't tease me with words. Your pranks are very mean and actually hurt!" She said, her voice taking on a whining tone. Tayuya frowned at the girl. If there was one thing she hated, it was whiners. The other boy, who had long blonde hair, took out a kunai and started twirling it around._

"_Come on now, dodging a kunai or shuriken isn't that hard…" He said, a evil smirk coming across his face. The girl standing between the two boys spoke up next._

"_This isn't worth out time, lets just leave her." She intoned, dead to the world. She had her red hair back in a ponytail. They boy with the hat opened his mouth, also taking out a kunai._

"_I can dodge a kunai fine. With the way you talk about kunochi and shinobi being equal, you should have no trouble dodging it." Tayuya continued to watch as a smile crept across her face. With the way things are going, there just might be a fight. Unfortunately, there were people around, so she expected it would be broken up soon._

"_You always blindside me Masiko! How the hell am I supposed to dodge something I don't even expect from my own fellow ninja. At least I can dodge it most of the time, you would probably just get hit like an idiot." Carrot-top said. The girl with red hair looked over at Masiko._

"_Moegi's got you there. Hell, in class when we started doing dodging techniques, you and Iriko" she motioned to the two boys next to her "Were the only ones who couldn't dodge the teachers throws. You still can't do it that well to this day Masiko."_

"_Shut up Hiri!" Masiko shouted, looking extremely angry. He looked over to Moegi, deciding to take his anger out on her. _

_Tayuya actually smiled when she saw the boy rear back his fist and slam it into Moegi's stomach. She frowned though when the boy pushed the girl into the ground face first and stuck his foot on her head as she vainly tried to push herself up. Tayuya watched as some villagers just looked at the girl before shaking their heads and walking past without doing anything._

_When Tayuya looked back, she no longer saw a child with orange hair in the dirt, but a girl with short red hair. Instead of it being bright and sunny, the street was only illuminated by several lights in the dead of night. The red haired child tried to push herself up from the ground, but was brutally shoved back into the dirt. She watched as the little girl endured insult after insult, while people just walked bye._

_The scene changed when instead of seeing a red haired or orange haired girl on the ground, she saw and young boy being shoved down by a older girl with red hair. She had a triumphant look on her face as she kicked the boy over and over. This time, a passer bye ran over and shoved the redhead off the young boy. As she regained her footing, she twirled back to whoever had pushed her off, but stopped when she saw the protective look on the adults face._

_Tayuya was broken out of her trance by hearing Moegi's plea's for the young boy to stop that fell on deaf ears. She looked over to see a young man walking over to the group of children, but he was taking his sweet time._

_Two choices ran through Tayuya's head. Would she be someone who just walked past, or would she be someone to stop what was going on? Two choices, only one to be made. On a random impulse, Tayuya chose what to do._

"_Stop that." A voice called out. The 4 children looked over to see a blue and red haired teenager walking towards them. "Get off of her." Tayuya said again. Masiko snorted at the newcomer._

"_What makes you think I'll do that? Why don't you come over here and make me stop?" Masiko said arrogantly. If there was something else Tayuya hated, it was arrogant punks. She didn't bother to give little fuck a response, as she punched him in the stomach, causing him to kneel over before she kneed him in the face. The subsequent hit sent the boy flying._

"_Did you say something?" Tayuya asked innocently. Iriko looked at his friend, then back to Tayuya. He gave off some sort battle cry before charging at Tayuya. She sidestepped, kneeing him in the abdomen and slamming her elbow into the boy's back. As the boy hit the ground hard. She looked over to the last girl before advancing on her._

"_I think you've done enough." Tayuya looked over to see a girl with a frown on her face. She had pink hair. This must be the 'Sakura' than Sasuke mentioned once. The girl looked over to Iriko, Masiko, and Hiri. "Run along now." The 3 children didn't waste a moment. Masiko was just getting up and Hiri walked over to help Iriko._

"_What's gonna happen to her?" Masiko said, looking over at Tayuya who was helping Moegi up._

"_I'll deal with her. Go now." Sakura said sternly. With that, the 3 children took off to who knows where. Tayuya saw Sakura's frown deepen as she walked toward Tayuya. Tayuya stood up straight as a board, ready for whatever was going to happen. She wasn't going to take shit from anyone._

_Sakura walked right up Tayuya. After a moment, she shook her head and smiled. "I have to thank you for doing that. Those kids are always causing trouble." Tayuya was shocked at Sakura's response. She was expecting to get reprimanded. "Are you okay Moegi?"_

"_Yeah thanks to this lady." Moegi said, looking up at Tayuya. "You kicked their butt! That was really amazing! Can you teach me how to do that? Please?" Moegi asked, her puppy dog eyes activating. Tayuya was put off balance with the question. Luckily, Sakura answered the question._

"_Moegi, why don't you ask her another time? She's probably been very busy since she got here." Sakura lectured. She then turned back to Tayuya. "I don't believe that we have met yet. I'm Sakura." She said extending her hand._

"_Krystal." Tayuya said quickly, shaking her hand._

"_And how are you liking Konoha so far?" Tayuya thought for a moment before responding to Sakura's question._

"_It's different." Tayuya said. Sakura opened her mouth to talk, but was interrupted by a loud voice._

"_Sakura!" Tayuya cursed her luck when she looked past Sakura to see that blonde guy running towards Sakura. "Hey Sakura, are you ready to-oh, you're here too?" He said looking at Tayuya. This of course made her mad._

"_What do you mean 'oh, you're here-oh never mind." Tayuya said, flipping Naruto off. Moegi took this moment to tell Naruto about Tayuya's heroic deed._

"_Krystal saved me from being bullied. She beat the kids up real good. I think she would make a great ninja." Moegi said excitedly. She may have not known it, but what she said sent a chill down Tayuya's spine. If she was discovered…_

"_Thank you very much Krystal." Naruto said cordially, shocking Tayuya out of her reverie. He looked over at Sakura. "We should get going, or were going to be late." Tayuya could tell by the tone of his voice that Naruto wasn't in his usually annoying form. She would have made fun of him, but she didn't want o show too much of her abrasive personality. _

"_It was nothing." Tayuya said casually. Naruto looked over to Sakura. _

"_Sakura, are you ready to go?" Naruto asked gravely. Sakura took a deep breath before nodding. Tayuya's curiosity got the better of her._

"_Where are you going?" She asked. Naruto opened his mouth, as if he was going to answer right away before closing it. He stroked his chin for a moment before giving his answer._

"_Wouldn't you like to know." Tayuya found his smirk absolutely infuriating. "I'll see you around Krystal.." Naruto almost sounded friendly to Tayuya…almost._

"_Nice meeting you." Sakura said, following Naruto who had already started to where ever he was going. Tayuya watched him leave before she felt the girl tug on her arm._

"_I just wanted to thank you again. I still think you would make a great ninja!" Moegi said. She then looked down at her watch before her eyes went wide. "Crap, I'm late. It was nice meeting you." With that, Moegi ran off to where ever her destination was. Tayuya just watched Moegi go before looking up at the sky._

"_I would make a good ninja huh?" Tayuya shook her head. "Honestly, I don't even remember why I became a ninja in the first place."_

**END FLASHBACK**

"And that's how they met!" Naruto said jovially.

"Fascinating." Shikamaru said plainly. Naruto looked offended.

"What, did I not tell it good? Or do you not even really care how they met?"

"The latter."

"Oh…I see." Naruto looked over at Moegi, who's hair was everywhere. "So did you manage to find Konohamaru yet?" Moegi shook her head.

"He seems to have completely disappeared. It's like he literally fell off the map." She said, sounding very despaired.

"I'm sure me and Temari could-"

"Temari and I. Get it right Tayuya." A vein popped on Tayuya's forehead.

"Why don't you shut the fuck up Naruto?" She said, venom dripping from her mouth. Naruto simply gave her a challenging look.

"Why don't you make me?"

"Oh, I will. Permanently." Tayuya gave him the finger for good measure.

"Are you sure she loves you Naruto? She sounded pretty hateful there." Naruto simply waived off Shikamaru's comment.

"It's just her way of showing affection. She can't get enough of me. After all, everyone wants a piece of the Uzumaki!" Naruto boasted, flexing his muscles for good measure. Shikamaru gave him an incredulous look.

"Keep telling yourself. It might come true one day." Shikamaru put in.

"Oh, it's already true. You see-"

"Will you two shut the hell up!?" Tayuya said angrily before turning back to Moegi. "I'm sure me and Temari could find Konohamaru pretty quickly for you." She said fondly. Moegi considered for a moment, but she didn't need to make a decision, as someone told them where Konohamaru was.

"I just saw Konohamaru a few minutes ago." Naruto's face lit up at the new comers voice.

"Iruka!" Naruto turned around to see said man walking towards them. Naruto ran up to him and gave him a big hug. "I haven't seen you in ages!"

"Well, working at the academy is hard work you know." Iruka said.

"So how have-" Naruto was cut off as Tayuya forcibly shoved him out of the way.

"Where did you see that punk? Well? Hurry up and answer dammit! I'll kick your ass if you don't." Tayuya said extremely quickly, not giving the older man a chance to answer.

"Calm down Tayuya. Iruka, where did you see him last?" Temari asked calmly. After all, at least one person has to be calm and level headed in situations like these.

"I saw him walking out of a store. That was about an hour ago." Iruka said. Tayuya snorted at this new piece of information.

"Well, that's some useless information." Tayuya pointed out. Iruka looked at her strangely for a moment. "What? Is there something on my face?"

"I just remembered that you said that a lot at the academy. Even if you were a seasoned ninja, you didn't have to be so vocal about it." Iruka said, rubbing the back of his head. Temari's ears perked up at this new piece of information.

"Wait, you went to the Konoha academy? To become a ninja?" She asked. Tayuya gave a curt nod. It was easy to tell that she did not want to delve more into this topic, but it was Iruka who brought up the next point.

"She did go to the academy. Why, I remember when she and Naruto came to ask me if Tayuya could join. Lets see, here's how it went…"

**END CHAPTER 4**

I finally know where I'm going with the story. As of right now, I have everything planned out in how I want it to go down. What's only left is just typing it up and putting it in place. This chapter took longer because of all the work piled up from school. I wanted to get it out as soon as possible, so it may seem a little rough around the edges. I'll let you be the judge of that. Tell me what you think! I also feel that the next chapter is when it will start getting really good. At lest from my perspective.


	5. First Ninjaship, First Fight

Still Don't Own Naruto.

For some odd reason, I felt the need to get this chapter out, even though it is unbetaed. I've read over it a few times so it I shouldn't have messed up too many times, but I plan to put up the betaed version when it ready. I again want to thank Chris Nemo for being my Beta.

_Flashback_

"_Flashback Talk"_

Present

"Present Talk"

**CHAPTER 5: First Ninjaship, First Fight**

"_Alright kids, you can head on out now." Iruka said. He watched as the kids struggled to get out first. As he watched the last student leave, he looked at the board, which showed how a kunai would fly when it was raining. His thoughts trailed to something that someone had mentioned to him the other day._

"_Thinking about what I said?" A voice from the door called. Iruka looked over to see Anko leaning against the door. She was wearing her usual attire, only her hair was down. Iruka sighed yet again and looked at the board._

"_You haven't been the first person to bring the point up."_

"_Of course I haven't. Others agree that we should be teaching these kids Chakra control instead of how to throw a kunai when its raining or how the trade between countries affects the economic situation for the villages.. Honestly, if it's raining, we should be teaching some water jutsu's that they can use." Anko said shaking her head while walking towards Iruka._

"_But we don't have any water experts in our village." Iruka pointed out while Anko sat on his desk. Anko put on one of her sadistic grins._

"_Get that lazy Kakashi to teach kids then. The only thing he ever does is read that stupid book. I swear, he has to have read the whole series 10 times over." Anko said. Iruka sat down on the desk next to Anko and stroked his chin._

"_Actually, I've heard through Naruto that he has been courting someone." Iruka put in. Anko looked at him skeptically._

"_Oh? I didn't think he was capable of such things. Whom is he going after?" _

"_How am I supposed to know?"_

"_Well, you're the one who said he's going after someone."_

"_I got the information from Naruto!" The silence that followed was deafening._

"_Well…I see…" Anko didn't really have an answer to what Iruka said. "Anyway, take advantage of whatever you can get your hands on." Iruka looked at Anko._

"_Yeah and I suppose I can get some sound jutsu's from that new girl who's always traveling around with Naruto." Iruka said dryly. Anko glanced at Iruka from the corner of her eyes_

"_Ah, that punk. She has quite a mouth on her, so I'm sure you'll be hearing her voice a lot in the future." She finished slyly._

"_Why's that? Besides, she only has a loud voice, she's not always like Naruto, who's voice is always 10 decibels too high. She also has quite the coarse mouth."_

"_Well, those two have been hanging out more lately." Anko responded. Iruka's ears perked up, detecting where this was going._

"_S-so? They are being forced to do things together. Its not that big of a deal." Iruka replied nonchalantly. Anko detected a slight undertone to Iruka's voice but couldn't detect what it was._

"_Hmm, I distinctly remember the Nara's starting out this way. I can also think of a few other famous couples." Iruka paled when he noted that Anko was right. "Can you imagine what their kids will be like? Rude, loud, and never ending energy." Anko said giving Iruka a comforting pat on the shoulder. "Your fucked." Iruka did not give into her taunts._

"_They won't get married."_

"_Keep thinking that." Anko put in while hopping off the desk. She was completely bullshiting everything she said, but he didn't need to know that. As she was about to walk out, she stopped and turned around._

"_What is it?"_

"_You know…Kakashi isn't the only person who's trying to court someone." With that, she left, leaving Iruka in a confused state_

_**LATER ON**_

_Iruka was just about to leave when two individuals walked into the classroom. It was Naruto and that new girl. What was her name again?_

"_Iruka, Krystal wants to become a ninja." Naruto forced out. Iruka frowned at the boy's tone. He looked over to Krystal and saw that she was very tight lipped._

"_Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't she not a official resident?" Iruka inquired. Both of the teens looked at each other before Naruto decided to speak._

"_Is there a problem if she isn't a resident?" Naruto asked._

"_Yes, there is a very big problem. I'm afraid that if you are not a citizen of Konoha, you can not become a shinobi." Iruka explained,_

"_Is there any way I can become a ninja without being a citizen?" Krystal asked. The older man shook his head._

"_I'm afraid that there is no way around this." Naruto looked relieved at Iruka's declaration while Krystal looked crestfallen. _

"_So…there's no way then?" Krystal said, sounding very down. From what Iruka had heard about the girl, she had a very strong personality and this was very unlike her. Perhaps it meant a lot to her. Looking at the teenager, Iruka hesitated before going on. _

"_You didn't hear this from me, but I hear that you can get permission from the Hokage to become a ninja, though I hear it hasn't been done many times." Iruka said elusively. Krystals face lit up at the new piece of information._

"_Come on Naruto, lets go!" Krystal cried, grabbing Naruto's hand and bolting out of the building. Iruka shook his head._

**ENDFLASH BACK**

"And that's how it went. What's with the look?" Iruka asked, very confused at the faces Naruto and the others were making.

"That was a very shitty story." Tayuya said bluntly. The others nodded their heads quickly. Temari was the next person to speak up.

"Why the hell did you tell us about your encounter with Anko? Also, is that how it ends?" Temari add.

"Well…"

"Your kinda bad at telling stories." Shikamaru muttered. Iruka hung his head at all the comments. Naruto went up to Iruka and patted him on the back.

"Don't worry, I'll finish the story. Lets see, I'll start from when Tayuya told me she wanted to become a ninja

_**ON THE STREET, BEFORE GOING TO THE ACADAMY**_

"_You want to what Tay-Krystal?" Naruto bellow in out rage. Tayuya simply looked at him like he was an idiot…which wasn't very far from the truth in her opinion._

"_I said, 'I want to become a ninja.' What part of that statement did you not understand?" Tayuya explained as if she was talking to a child. Naruto opened and closed his mouth like a fish before settling for crossing his arms._

"_You can't become a ninja!"_

"_Why not?"_

"_You just can't." Naruto exclaimed, waving his arms around. Tayuya's face twisted into an angry scowl._

"_Not good enough Naruto. Not good enough." Tayuya said, turning away from Naruto to walk towards the academy. Naruto stopped waving his hands around and looked to the ground. Although she didn't call him tard, shit head, numbskull, or any other of her various nicknames for him as much as she used to, but that didn't make dealing with her any easier. A question was circling in Naruto's head, one that he couldn't find an answer to. So, what better to do than ask Tayuya._

"_Why?" Tayuya looked back at Naruto._

"_Why what?" She responded, looking confused at Naruto's question._

"_Why?"_

"_Naruto, what-"_

"_Why do you want to become a ninja?" Naruto interrogated, his facial features becoming extremely serious. He slowly made his way toward Tayuya, every step bringing him one closer to her._

"_That's none of your damn business." Tayuya said dangerously. She didn't budge as Naruto stopped mere inches from her face._

"_That's where your wrong. I'm supposed to be watching over you. Again I ask, why?" Tayuya leaned back from Naruto's close proximity._

"_I have my reasons." She again turned around to walk towards the academy._

"_I will find out one way or another." Naruto said, sounding very determined. Tayuya smirked at the boy's determination. She looked over her shoulder at Naruto._

"_Maybe if your lucky, you'll find out one day, maybe even someday soon…ass clown."_

_**ON THE WAY TO THE HOKAGES OFFICE**_

_Tayuya was happy and excited. She had finally got some good news. As she climbed the stairs, she looked back at Naruto who had a neutral look on his face. They had not said a word to each other since leaving Iruka's presence._

_Weird thing is, the silence made Tayuya very uncomfortable. She found it very unnerving. She stopped climbing towards the Hokage's office and turned around to Naruto._

"_Say something."_

"_Huh?"_

"_Say something."_

"…_Something."_

_Tayuya turned around and shoved Naruto very hard. Naruto would have gone tumbling down the stairs if he had not used is chakra to keep himself from falling over._

"_I'm not done with you yet." Tayuya deadpanned, leaving a very confused Naruto behind as she continued the trek to the Hokages office._

_**IN THE HOKAGE'S OFFICE**_

"_I want to become a ninja." Tayuya said firmly. Tsunade. leaned back in her chair._

"_I'm sorry, but you need to be a citizen to become a ninja here. You are not a citizen. The only way to become a citizen is for me to grant you citizenship or to marry into the leaf." Tsunade said. Her face darkened slightly when she spoke next. "I can tell you right not, I will never make you a citizen. Ever. I may let you stay here, but that doesn't mean I will grant you other privileges." Tayuya was taken aback by the Hokages cold tone, but would not back down that easily._

"_So I need to be a citizen to become a ninja?"_

"_That is correct."_

"_I've heard otherwise." Even though Tayuya's statement was simple, the Hokage knew exactly what she was talking about._

_Tsunade's eyes widened before they narrowed in anger. "Who told you that?"_

_Tayuya rolled her eyes and looked over to Naruto. Tsunade quickly looked over to Naruto. He put his hands up in defense._

"_Don't look at me." Naruto said quickly. Tsunade sighed, putting her hands to her temple._

"_Alright, so I can grant the ability for TEMPORARY ninjaship."_

"_Ninjaship?" Naruto and Tayuya asked together._

"_Hey! I didn't invent it! It was that stupid Yondaime. Well, that not really important. What makes you think I shall grant you…ninjaship." Tsunade asked, gazing at the blue haired girl. Tayuya shifted a little bit._

"_Umm…your nice?" Tayuya muttered. Tsunade gave her a look that clearly said 'cut the shit'. "Alright there's no reason for you to do this. I've been here for a while but there's still a chance I'll run. Allowing me to train will also increase my already highly ranked status as a ninja, making it even easier for me to get out.. There, are you happy?" Tayuya said sarcastically. Even though she was still extremely hopeful that she could become a ninja, she knew the chances were practically 0. Tsunade looked over to Naruto._

"_Naruto…what do you think?" Tsunade inquired. Naruto looked over to Tayuya before answering in a very formal tone, one that was very foreign to his tongue._

"_I will trust in your greater judgment Hokage." Even though Naruto said that, Tsunade could tell that he was deeply against Tayuya becoming a ninja. Tsunade closed her eyes making her decision._

"_I have made my decision. As I am Hokage, I am granted the ability to make anyone a ninja, whether it even be against their wishes, as I must make all decisions for the best of Konoha, village of the leaf. I hear bye grant Tayuya Darius temporary ninjaship. It shall be put on the record as Krystal Kaori." Tsunade ordered._

"_Yes!" Tayuya shouted, jumping in the air. She ran over to Naruto and gave a tight hug to Naruto, who looked numb and didn't even looked surprised or shocked. She then ran out of the Hokage's office. After she had left, Tsunade stood up and walked over to Naruto._

"_First, do not question my decisions. Understood?" Naruto nodded, giving up any hope that he could change Tsunade's mind. "Next, why don't you want…wish…for Tayuya to become a ninja?" Tsunade asked._

_Naruto simply looked at Tsunade before walking out to catch up to Tayuya._

_**OUTSIDE THE HOKAGE'S OFFICE**_

_Tayuya waited outside the Hokage's office, as she was going to give Naruto a piece of her mind. When Naruto came out, she strode up to him and got up in his face._

"_What is your problem?" She bellowed, shoving him with her index finger against his chest. Naruto's eye's narrowed at Tayuya's show of force._

"_What do you mean?"_

"_Why can't you be at least a little happy for me? You know, at least a congratulations would be nice." Tayuya muttered. Naruto snorted before walking past her._

"_Why should I be happy for you?" Naruto responded rudely. Tayuya ran up to him and got up in his face again._

"_Dammit, I was just starting to think that you cared about my feelings and what's important to me, like when you asked again about what my dreams are about a week ago? I guess I was wrong."_

"_Why would I be happy about something I don't want you to do?" Naruto yelled. Tayuya's face turned red in anger._

"_Why don't you want me to become a ninja you fucktard!?" Tayuya shouted._

_Naruto snorted. "I don't plan on telling you." Tayuya clutched the side of her shirt before she pulled out her really big guns._

"_You know, you're a hypocrite. You care so much about your own dreams, yet you have no respect for others dreams. You don't congratulate me when I achieved my short-term goal and you tried for so long to stop Sasuke's dream of killing his brother. You went so far to stop him achieving his own dream. That's a real good way of showing how much you care for some one." Tayuya ranted. She looked satisfied when Naruto got mere inches from her face._

"_I'm worried about you, you god damn bitch!" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs. Realizing what he just said, Naruto covered his mouth._

_When Tayuya heard that Naruto was worried about her, there were the obvious questions that were going through her mind. Things like 'why would he be worried about me becoming a ninja? Does he think I'll get hurt? Does he think someone would backstab me?'. Yeah, you get the point. The biggest question was the one that she put into words._

"_Wait…your worried about me?" Tayuya asked slowly. Naruto looked away. Not meeting her gaze. "At least give me a answer." She pleaded. Naruto took a deep breath before nodding. "Why?"_

"_Is it really that important to you?" Naruto asked. Tayuya thought for a moment_

"_Not really…but it would be nice to know, ya know." There was more silence. "So, are you going to tell me?"_

"_Fine, I'm worried about you getting hurt okay? There I said, happy now?" Naruto responded. "Can we please drop this now?"_

"_Why would you be worried about me?" Tayuya interrogated, completely ignoring Naruto's wishes. Said boy ran a hand through his hair before going on._

"_I don't want to see you get hurt. It would pain me if you did." Translation: Naruto cared about her. She shook that thought out of her head and asked yet another question._

"_Why?"_

"_Ever think that I might consider you somewhat of a friend?" Naruto said sarcastically. Tayuya had to admit that Naruto defined some friendships weird, but Tayuya had to know more. She opened her mouth when she was interrupted by none other than Iruka._

"_Naruto! Krystal!" He called out as he approached them._

"_This isn't over Naruto." Tayuya whispered before going to greet Iruka and tell him about her temporary Ninja ship._

_**BACK IN THE OFFICE**_

"_So why did you do it?" a white haired man asked. Tsunade turned around in her chair to face none other than Jiraiya, the toad sannin._

"_I have no reason to state my actions."_

"_Yeah, I kind of figured you say that." The pervert said taking out his notes and looking over them while stepping inside the office. He didn't say anything as he took a seat across from the Hokage's desk. He didn't bother to say another word, as he knew Tsunade would give him a clear-cut answer._

"_Would you believe me if I said I was bored?" Tsunade said. Jiraiya snorted._

"_That's something I would say."_

"_Listen, its not like she's only been here for several months, its been almost a year. So, you could say I trust her a little." She said absentmindly. Jiraiya gave her a look. "Okay, I don't trust her. I did this for Naruto."_

"_Oh? Last time I checked, he didn't want her to be a ninja." Jiraiya informed._

"_And when did you last check?"_

"_About 1 hour ago when Naruto said he was worried about her." _

"_Ah." Tsunade said, leaning back in her chair. "Well, I did say that she might become important to Naruto, so I think this will increase that possibility."_

"_Along with giving her a better chance to runaway…with Sasuke. You know, he hasn't improved at all. He is still shutting himself off to everyone. I've heard reports that he somehow keeps in contact with Tayuya through their curse seal, something they most likely discovered recently, as they have both been very isolated, though Tayuya has much more interaction when you compare the two." Jiraiya explained. Tsunade didn't say anything in response, she just folded her hands in silence._

_**END FLASHBACK**_

"So, that's how that went." Naruto said, looking and sounding very satisfied. "Unfortunately, it only took about a month for Tayuya to become a jounin. She skipped genin with permission from the old lady after a brief discussion a few weeks in and defeated 3 jounin at once to become a jounin. Apparently it's a different way of becoming Jounin."

"Didn't that raise some questions?" Temari asked.

"The Hokage said that she used to be a ninja and used it as a reason to make her one, saying she was doing to for the sake of the village. It was a lot of confusing words and some bull shit mixed in here and there." Naruto replied

"I wonder what it was like for Iruka having to teach her?" The blonde sand-nin said while playing with the hem of her shirt. Iruka's smile fell as he recalled how it went.

"It was absolute hell. I remember on many occasions I got cussed out for 'my ignorance' when I was teaching at the academy.. I'll admit the suggestions she made in the 5 classes she was allowed to attend were very helpful, but Tayuya is a horrible teacher when she actually tried to teach the class. It was after that incident that I kicked her out."

"Why does that not surprised me…" Shikamaru muttered. Tayuya's face scowled as everyone was talking about her, but not acknowledging her.

"I'm right here you know!" No one really bother to pay attention to the red head. "Pay attention to me dammit!"

"Umm, could you please tell me where you saw Konohamaru?" Moegi pleaded. Iruka nodded and put a hand to his forehead.

"I saw him-"

"It doesn't matter where you saw him, as I was the one who found him."

"Hanabi…" Moegi growled, turning around to face Konohamaru and Hanabi. She didn't expect to see the third person there.

"Actually I found Konohamaru when this brat came along." Hanabi stomped her foot for a second time today.

"I'm not a brat Anko!"

"If you say so…" Anko said patting Hanabi's head. "Hiya." Anko had recently ditched her trench coat for a more…normal attire. She had her hair back in a messy setup. She wore a black skirt that went barely pass her knees, but she often bragged about how she had a very short pair of shorts underneath the skirt so that she could still fight at any given moment. She was wearing a white sleeveless top that stopped a little before her belly button.

"Anko, your looking stunning, as usual." Iruka said smoothly. Unfortunately, it didn't come out the well. Konohamaru couldn't help but laugh.

"Nice one Iruka. That sounded-ack, let go of my ear woman!" Konohamaru cried in vain as both Hanabi and Moegi had one of his ears.

"Why don't you tell us why you were late this morning?" Moegi seethed.

"Indeed, do tell why you didn't bother showing up at all, Sarutobi?" Hanabi added. Konohamaru looked very uncomfortable. He looked over to Naruto, giving him a pleading look. Naruto ran a hand through his hair.

"Hey, hey, there's no need for this." Naruto said amicably, walking up to Konohamaru and pulling him from the two girls. "Besides, I need to talk to Konohamaru about 'man' stuff. No, there's no need for you Iruka." Naruto added hastily when Iruka tried to walk over to where Shikamaru and Naruto were heading.

"Hey, where do you think your taking him Naruto?" Tayuya inquired. Hanabi and Moegi were also heading towards the boys. Luckily, it was Anko who came to the rescue.

"Come now, let the boys have their talk. You know how they are about this stuff." Anko said, a smile creeping up her face. "Besides, there's a few questions I had for you two." Anko added, putting her arms around Hanabi and Moegi. Tayuya and Temari looked at each other. Each of them shrugged in turn and followed Anko. Poor Iruka gets no love and is all alone…as usual.

Once Konohamaru, Shikamaru, and Naruto were away from the girls, Naruto gave a serious look to Konohamaru. "Let me guess. You were out getting gifts?" Konohamaru nodded in affirmation.

"I'm assuming that one is a friendship gift while the other is affection gift?" Shikamaru added. Konohamaru hesitated for a few moments before nodding again. Naruto put his hand to his forehead. "Taking after Naruto again I see. He did the same for Tayuya and Hinata…although I heard that the decision wasn't very hard for him."

"I'd rather not talk about that right at this moment. So…who's getting what?" Naruto inquired putting Konohamaru on the spot. Said boy shook his head.

"You'll find out in due time. I just hope everything works out in the end." Konohamaru sighed, looking over to see the girls chatting amicably. Shikamaru looked at his watch.

"I really should grab Temari, as we still have stuff that needs to be done." He nodded to Shikamaru before walking over to the girls and grabbed Temari, dragging her away.

"Naruto…how did everything go down when you told Tayuya you liked her and Hinata you didn't like her?"

"Konohamaru…its not like they were in the same room when I told them. Its more like I told Hinata I didn't like her and prayed that Tayuya wouldn't reject me. I don't mind telling you, it took quite a lot of convincing on my part."

"So…when did Hinata tell you she liked you. Didn't she come up and say she liked you when you were talking to Tayuya or something?" Konohamaru asked.

"Yeah…we were having a pretty important conversation too."

_**FLASHBACK**_

_Naruto sighed as he looked out the window of his apartment. It had been 4 months since Tayuya had become a ninja again. She had met the rookie nine, as Iruka thought it would be a good idea to meet some fellow ninja, and who better than Naruto's friends? Most of the introductions had gone off without incident, except when she met Rock Lee a few weeks later. His eye brows made her shudder and whenever she would talk to him, she would indirectly mention his eye brows. Naruto was there when she said 'It's a fuzzy day, isn't it?'. Any normal person would have been embarrassed, but Tayuya just brushed it off._

_For some strange reason, Tayuya got along with Kiba extremely well. A little too well in Naruto's opinion. He also had no clue why they got along with each other they just…clicked._

_The only person Tayuya absolutely hated was Ino, for many reasons. They REALLY fought, exchanging insults like no one's business. One of Ino's favorite insults was 'blue bitch', referring to Tayuya's current hair color. She tolerated or got along alright with almost everyone else, which greatly surprised Naruto even more than how she got along with Kiba so well._

_Naruto pushed the thought to the back of his mind and walked out of his apartment, heading towards the Hokage Tower, as that was where the meeting was supposed to be held._

"_I hope I don't run into Tayuya…she's been pestering me about what I said when she became a ninja a lot lately."_

"_I'm sooooo glad you think so highly of me that you would try to avoid me Naruto." Naruto cringed, knowing who was behind him. He turned around to see Tayuya, with her arms crossed, looking very angry. He then noticed that Moegi was standing next to her._

"_That wasn't very nice Naruto…" Moegi said, sounding very disappointed._

"_Damn right. You should apologize to me Naruto." Tayuya added sweetly. Naruto stared at her._

"_No way."_

"_Dammit, apologize to me you fucker!" Tayuya bellowed._

"_Moegi, Tayuya and I need to head to meet the old lady. Why don't you run along?" Normally, what Naruto said would have made Moegi do anything but run along, but she decided to play along in this case. She said goodbye to Tayuya and walked off. Tayuya and Naruto stared at each other for a few moments before Tayuya rolled her eyes and spoke._

"_So should I walk ahead or something?" She said sarcastically. "Or are you going to answer my question finally?" Naruto knew exactly what she was talking about, but decided to play dumb._

"_What question is that?"_

"_Why did you say you were worried about me you imbecile?" Tayuya forced out. Naruto turned away and started walking to the Hokage's Tower, knowing she would catch up. _

_He thought for a moment. It wasn't like she was going to give up anytime soon. And since their relationship had improved a little, he might as well just say._

"_Fine…I'm worried about you getting hurt." Tayuya looked at him dumbly when she caught up._

"_What about your other friends, like Sakura? Are you also worried about them getting hurt so much that you wouldn't want them to become a ninja?"_

"_Okay, I admit logic wasn't on my side when I made that statement." Naruto confessed._

"_So WHY were you worried about me then?" Tayuya interrogated._

_Naruto ran a hand through his hair. "Did you ever think that I might care about you?" Naruto said seriously. The redhead looked at him briefly before she burst out laughing. "Oh come on, must you be so immature?" It took her awhile to stifle her laughs, but she was still giggling. _

"_You care about me?" Normally such a statement from Tayuya would have sounded very serious…however, the laughing just made the statement seem silly. "As what?"_

"_A comrade." Naruto lied._

"_Bullshit and you know it. Give me a straight answer." Tayuya said calmly. Naruto swore before looking at her._

"_I care for you as a friend…sorta. There, I said it. You happy now?" Naruto forced out. He noticed then that Tayuya had stopped walking and was several feet behind him. "Tayuya?"_

"_You consider me a friend?" She said, not believing the words that were coming out of her mouth. "Why?"_

"_God, all you ever ask me is questions." Naruto shouted. He then swallowed and gave her a serious answer. "I knew that there was hope for you the first time I met you. That's why I brought you back to the village…I believed that you were a good person deep inside. Looking at how you have acted through the village has only confirmed my belief." Naruto took a few steps toward her till he was only a few inches from her face. "Though you may not believe it…the more time I spend around you, the more I like you as a person. Tayuya, I do consider you a friend." He was afraid to ask the next part, but felt that it needed to be done. "What do you think of me?"_

_Tayuya wasn't expecting that question, as the shocked look on her face was very apparent. She tilted her head from side to side before answering. "Your not all that bad…" she muttered grudgingly. "Don't think were all buddy, buddy now! I mean, you still suck and I hate you for taking me here…but your alright." Tayuya said, not totally convincing. Naruto opened his mouth again, but never got to talk, as a new arrival called out to him._

"_Naruto." Both ninjas looked over to see none other than Hinata walking towards them. She walked in a different way…almost sauntering. Hinata looked over to Tayuya, her face scowling slightly, which was even more odd, as Hinata was usually polite to Tayuya._

"_What the fuck you staring at bitch?" Tayuya shot off. Hinata shook her head, completely ignoring the insult._

"_I don't have much time Naruto so I'll make this quick."_

"_Hinata, your not making any sense."_

"_I like you Naruto." She stated. "I've liked you for a very long time, ever since we were back in the academy. I admired your determination more than you could ever imagine. There is so much about you that I want to get to know better, but unfortunately, I am too shy to ever talk to you. I know this is sudden and I don't want anything to change between us, but I felt that I just had to tell you before it's too late. I will try to open up myself in the future, but I don't know how successful I'll be." Hinata finished solemnly._

_To say that Naruto was surprised would be an understatement. He never even thought that Hinata would have feelings for HIM. However, everything started making sense, like why she blushed when he was near her and why she offered to help him during the test they took way back when they were still Genin. He looked over to see that Tayuya was also very shocked. It was understandable, as it wasn't every day that you saw a confession of undying love right in front of you._

_Well, maybe undying love was a exaggeration, but there was still one thing that bothered Naruto…how the hell did Hinata get the courage to confess her love if she was so damn shy? It was almost like she was a completely different person._

"_Hinata…if you so shy, how are you able to tell me this with a straight face?" Naruto asked, scratching his head. Hinata didn't answer, but instead did something very unexpected._

_She cupped his face in her hands._

_Tayuya made a strangled noise, but Hinata and Naruto completely ignored it. Naruto was too stunned to do anything and just stared back into Hinata's eyes, his own face displaying no small amount of shock, She inched her face closer and closer to Naruto's before parting her lips. Right as she was about to kiss him, she stopped._

"_No…her first kiss should be her own…" Hinata whispered. She was then violently pushed back by Tayuya, who stood in front of Naruto._

"_What do you think your doing you slut?" Tayuya bellowed._

"_Ah, the blue bitch shows her true violent colors." Hinata said coldly, using blue as an obvious reference to the main color of Tayuya's hair. Tayuya and Naruto froze at what she said._

"_Only one person calls me that…why would you also call me that Hinata? Did Ino teach you that word?" Tayuya inquired._

_Suddenly everything clicked inside Naruto's head, in one of his few moments of acting intelligent. Hinata's strange behavior, her ability to get close to him without blushing even a little, her calling Tayuya a blue bitch._

"_Ino…that's it, Ino!" Naruto muttered. "Your Ino…aren't you?" Naruto asked, already knowing the answer. 'Hinata' cursed_

"_Yeah…you caught me." She muttered. "She then looked at Naruto so seriously that it made him take a step back. "I meant every word I said Naruto…all of it is true. Please remember that." With that, she walked off…not before flipping off Tayuya. It actually looked comical coming from Hinata's body. Naruto would have laugh if he didn't have to stop Tayuya from mauling the Hyuga's body._

"_God I hate that blonde bitch." Tayuya growled, still struggling to get out of Naruto's grip. She eventually gave up, stopping her struggle. And things were going so well before Hinata- or Ino, you decide- had shown up and dropped that bombshell on Naruto._

"_Now that we have that out of the way…" Naruto spoke, trying play it off like nothing was wrong. In reality, he wanted to talk about what just happened. He would talk to anyone…anyone EXCEPT Tayuya. He had an odd feeling he would regret it. He looked over to said girl to see her tapping her foot. "…What?"_

"_Talk."_

"_I really don't want."_

"_Oh? I don't believe that for a second. So start talking."_

"_Okay…last night I had some amazing ramen. You would not-"_

"_Fuck face! I meant about what just happened."_

"_I don't want to, okay?"_

"_No, its not okay. Stop hiding stuff from me! Lately when I ask you questions you just avoid them."_

_Naruto gawked at her. Stop hiding stuff from her? What the hell. "What about you? You hide all kinds of stuff about your self! I won't tell you shit if your going to be a fucking hypocrite" The blonde shouted. Tayuya opened her mouth before shutting it, obviously not wanting to saying something she might regret._

"_Fine. Forget about it…I won't talk to you ever again because obviously my concern is unwanted." The former sound-nin said coldly, walking away from Naruto, effectively ending the conversation._

_Now Naruto was even more confused. Why the hell was she so damn angry? The way she said it sounded like she never wanted to talk to him again. Was it a combination of things or was it just that she was really angry about him not wanting to talk about how he felt? "God, what is her problem?"_

"_Naruto, you truly are a fool when it comes to women."_

"_Now's not the time Jiraiya."_

"_That's where you're wrong. Now is the time."_

"_How so Kakashi?" Naruto turned around to see both Jiraiya and Kakashi walking towards him. "I assume you two heard all that happened?"_

"_And saw. So…what do you want advice on?" Jiraiya asked, actually sounding serious. Naruto was skeptical of how much it would help if he asked Jiraiya for advice. He was a super pervert after all. _

_He sighed before looking out the ground. As much as he wanted to figure out the whole Hinata issue, he had a very strong urge to figure out why Tayuya was even more pissed off than usual. Maybe it was that time of the month._

_Kakashi stepped up and put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. I'm going to take a wild guess and say your wondering why T-Krystal is so mad at you?" Naruto simply nodded. "As much as I want you to figure this out on your own, I doubt you'll ever be able to. So, I'll drop some hints."_

"_Better yet, lets just straight out tell him." Jiraiya added. "Listen, did you ever even think that she might want to get to know you more? Judging by the look on your face, probably not. Maybe that's why she asked about why you said you were worried about her, because she wanted to know the way you think." Naruto scoffed at this._

"_Or it could just be-wait a minute, how did you know about that?"_

"_Sannin Naruto." Jiraiya answered, reminding Naruto that he was a amazing ninja._

"_Here's a suggestion, maybe if you indulge Krystal with some information about yourself, maybe she'll tell you about herself. This only really matters if you want to know more about her though." Kakashi added. Naruto shook his head._

"_And just how am I going to do that?_

"_That…you must figure out on your own." Kakashi and Jiraiya said at the same time. Naruto looked back and forth between the two of them before throwing up his hands. The wouldn't even give him the most important piece of information._

"_Ah, fuck you guys."_

**END FLASHBACK**

"Well, that seemed like it was quite a day for you. You get a confession from one girl and it sounded like another girl started hating you. Good job Naruto." Konohamaru said, patting Naruto on the back. Said blonde simply rolled his eyes and gave him a smack upside the head.

"Everything worked out in the end didn't it?"

"Yeah, but you even told me that she didn't even acknowledge your existence for a little while. How did you manage to win her over?" The younger boy asked.

"Well…I kinda had some help from Iruka."

"I'd like to think I give pretty good advice from time to time." Said man put in, walking in on the conversation. Konohamaru turned his head.

"What advice did you give him?"

"Well, to be fair, it wasn't just me. The person who ended up giving the second piece of information was none other than Anko."

**FLASH BACK**

_It had been two weeks since Naruto had said he cared for Tayuya and she said the he wasn't that bad either. However, because of their fight, she had completely ignored him since the meeting where she got her ninjaship extended._

_Naruto was not completely sure why, but he felt compelled to resolve and mend things with Tayuya. Figuring out how was the hard part. He figured that he should ask one of his most trustful friends, Iruka._

"_Iruka, I was wondering-" he paused as he saw that Iruka was giving Anko a back massage, who seemed to be enjoying her self thoroughly.. "Am I interrupting something?"_

_Iruka stopped the massage extremely quickly and stood up straight. "Of course not Naruto. Now, what can I do for you?" Anko gave Naruto an annoyed look._

"_Yes, what do you need? And make it quick." She said impatiently._

"_You two better not laugh…I need girl advice." Naruto said in a very serious tone._

_Both of them burst out laughing. Naruto stomped his foot on the ground. "I seriously need help! Ta-Krystal hasn't talked to me in two weeks." Iruka wiped a tear from his eye before folding his arms._

"_Well, what did you do to make her mad at you?"_

"_Well… I already told you how Hinata, who was being controlled by Ino, confessed to me her feelings. After she had walked off, Krystal asked me to talk about what happened and I really didn't want to. She then yelled at me for hiding stuff from her, as she had been asking about my past and other weird things lately and I usually don't answer them. I then called her a hypocrite and said something else, I don't really remember. She then told me her concern was unwanted and we haven't talked since." Naruto finished. Anko and Iruka looked at each other briefly before looking back at Naruto._

"_It seems like she wants to get to know you better blondie." Anko said._

"_Gee, you think?" Naruto replied sarcastically, remembering what Jiraiya and Kakashi had said. "But how do I get her to talk to me again?"_

"_Why don't you buy her a gift? It could be a sign of good will." Iruka offered. Anko shook her head._

"_She'll see that your just trying to buy her affection back. I think you should indulge some information that she wants."_

"_But how will he do that if she won't even talk to him?" Iruka said looking back to Anko. "And how exactly will he share information."_

"_Play the question game." Anko said like it was the most obvious thing in the world._

"_Your joking, right?" Iruka and Naruto said together giving Anko incredulous looks. She threw a kunai at the two men because of their insolence before continuing._

"_Basically, one person asks a question and the other person answers. The it's the turn of the person who answered the question. You basically do that till your done. It's just an idea, geez." She said, throwing up her hands when she saw the looks the men were giving her._

_Naruto thought for a moment before something clicked in his head. "Okay, I know what I'm going to do." With that, he ran out of the academy to get what he needed._

_**END CHAPTER 5**_

I don't know off the top of my head if Ninjaship has been used in that 'Ask a Ninja' thing, as I have only seen a few episodes. I wouldn't be surprised if it has though. In all honesty, I want to cover a lot of parts in next chapter. I want to have a Sasuke part. Cover the Hinata part, or at least the first stage of it, and develop the relationship a little bit. This chapter was going to be much longer at first, but I scrapped the whole second half when I reread it. It definitely needed some extra work, so I need to rework. It was going to start with all the girls talking to each other, but the dialogue was bad, so I'm re-doing it. I had an omake ready for this chapter, but I didn't finish it, so it should be in the next chapter.

All that being said, even though this took me much longer than it should have, as I have been very busy, I'm actually very happy with how some parts of this chapter turned. Other good be better, but I think that overall this is well done. I should hopefully have the next chapter done within a couple weeks, but you know how life is, you never know whats going to be thrown at you. After all is said and done, I'm very pleased with how the story is going. Tell me what you guys think!


	6. Chapter 6

Lets Get this show on the road! Also, I own nothing. Except the 4 year hiatus.

**Chapter 6: A Trip Down Memory Lane**

"And instead of knowing what to do, he came to me."

Konohamaru, SHikamaru, Iruka, and Naruto all looked up to see Sasuke joining in on their conversation.

"Now to be fair, you don't know that." The future Hokage to be shot back. Sasuke simply put on his Uchiha Smirk**™.**

"Actually I do. Anko came up to me and told me about the conversation you three had." Naruto simply looked gob smacked.

"That bitch!" Unfortunately, this only drove Anko's attention to Naruto instead of on the girls.

"Pipe down small person before I nail your damn mouth shut." Anko bellowed, receiving a glare from the red head.

"Only I get to do that you slut!"

"What did you say to me!"

"You heard me!" Soon the two girls were squabbling, letting the men be driven back to their own conversation.

SHikamaru only sighed. "How Naruto like. Trying to be secretive about something and everyone already knows more than you. It sounds like it's the same for you playboy." He only glanced at Konohamaru to let him know he was talking about him. Said young boy glared back in response.

"Hey! You should understand where I'm coming from here! You've always had girls throwing themselves at you." What he didn't notice was that Hanabi and Moegi had heard the last part. And were none too happy.

Konohamaru's ears perked up when the distinct sound of 'BYAKUGAN' was heard. He slowly turned around to see two very jaded women.

"I didn't know we were bothering the mighty Sarutobi by 'throwing' ourselves at him. How busy he must be to think so little of us.' Hanabi spat out, ready to give Konohamaru a piece of her mind. Moegi simply cracked her knuckles.

Konohamaru did the only thing he could think of.

He ran.

Said women's jaws hit the floor, watching mutely as Konohamaru was already 2 streets away. "GET BACK HERE." The two girls demanded angrily before chasing off after him.

"Well, looks like it's our time to go to, come on lover boy." Anko chirped, having cut off her fight with Tayuya, before physically dragging Iruka off to who knows where. "Don't worry runts, I'll be seeing you shortly."

Temari and Tayuya looked on with disdain while Shikamaru motioned Naruto closer. "Be careful Naruto. The special ladies in our life might be like that one day too, dragging us around." He whispered, hoping that said ladies wouldn't hear he them. Tayuya wasn't that slow however.

"Hey, little men! What are you two talking about? I hope it's not about your lovely girlfriends….right?" Tayuya punctuated her statement by waving her hand menacingly.

Temari smirked, having her own 2 ryo to add in. "And if it is, it must be about how amazing we are."

Naruto and Shikamaru sweat dropped at her level of ESP, but nevertheless tried to play it off.

"We were just talking about Anko!" Naruto supplied happily. He missed Shikamaru making the 'Shut up' sign with his hands.

"Oh?" Temari questioned, putting her hands on her hips. "And what exactly were you discussing about Anko?" She finished icily. Thankful, some kind soul decided to save Naruto from his quick mouth.

"Obviously they were talking about her boobs." Sasuke supplied helpfully. Tayuya threw him a dirty look before giving Naruto the benefit of the doubt.

"I doubt that, but I'll save my blondie from embarrassment this once. Besides, I'm actually eager to hear what Naruto said to you Sasuke. I'm slightly affronted he went to you instead."

"Listen, it's a bit more complicated than-"

"Not now Naruto!" And just as quickly as she supported him, she shut him down. Such is the relationship of Naruto and Tayuya. Surprisingly, it was Temari that spoke up next.

"I actually want to hear about the so called conversation that caused Naruto and Tayuya to get completely smashed when they met up again." Temari remarked with a smirk, remembering the onetime Tayuya had mentioned it to the girls a few months back. Tayuya rolled her eyes and smacked her friend.

"I told you though, neither of us remembers that! How the fuck can you hear about it when we both woke up on the floor feeling like shit!"

Temari easily took the bait.

"I wanted to hear about Sasuke's and Naruto's, talk, not your drunken fiasco."

"You mother-"

"SASUKE ILL LET YOU TELL THIS ONE!" Naruto cried out, cutting off the rant that was about to happen between the two girls. Sasuke was quick on the uptake.

"It all started with…"

* * *

_Redemption._

_How could such a thing exists in this world. The ninja world._

_Sasuke was never one to think on such things. However…Naruto…_

_It was Naruto's fault._

_"It's always Naruto's fault." Sasuke mused. But was it really. Believe it or not, Sasuke was not a foolish person, as much as his brother may have spouted that he was. He knew that his decisions were all his own. His decision to fight Naruto on the roof, his decision to seek Orochimaru for power._

_His decision to come back._

_Well, that wasn't much a decision at all really. If he was going to kill his brother, he needed to live. He had no doubt he would have died that day, no matter what Naruto would have said to the two Sannin. However, what if he gave up on his quest?_

_All his life, Sasuke had strived to defeat his last living family member. The last of the Uchiha. But what if he gave up on his quest? His only other focus was restoring the clan to its former glory. Restoring it period. What if he focused on that instead?_

_"Then you would have a lot of little snobs running around Konoha. I think I would have to pass on being Hokage if that happened." Sasuke looked past the bars of his cell to see where the voice came from. "Talking aloud again Sasuke?"_

_"So it would seem Naruto. When your all alone all the time, you don't really notice these things as often." Sasuke intoned. Naruto just smirked back._

_"Good, cause that's about to change." Sasuke could only look back impassively. "Were going for a walk_

* * *

_Sasuke looked around the village as he and Naruto went for their trek. It was not any different than how he remembered it. Weak._

_While not entirely true, he could not come to change his view so easily. He left in the first place to seek power._

_"Huuur, I'm Sasuke and I left this place to seek power." Naruto imitated in a retarded sounding voice. Sasuke only shook his head._

_"Eloquent as always dobe."_

_"So it would seem."_

_However, the short exchange ended there as they walked around. Needless to say, Sasuke was slightly surprised. Whenever he and Naruto talked, it was often heated, with Sasuke not giving much thought to whatever Naruto had to say. Blondie on the other hand would take offense to everything Sasuke said._

_"Nothing to say Naruto?"_

_"Look around Sasuke, what do you see? Humor me, I did sneak you out of that cell." Naruto noted, glancing sideways at Sasuke,_

_"I wouldn't call what you did sneaking-"_

_"Sasuke. What I'm trying to say is just look around and what do you see?"_

_Sasuke did indeed look around. He saw bustling streets full of people, annoying brats running around playing childhood games, people looking like they didn't have a care in the world. Especially not the task of having to murder your brother._

_Sasuke opened his mouth to tell Naruto exactly what he say, a care free village with no worries. A place that had nowhere for him. But Naruto beat him to the punch._

_"I see opportunity. And I don't just mean the beautiful women of Konoha." Sasuke shot him a disgusted look before Naruto's face broke into a smile. "Kidding kidding."_

_"Sasuke, I see a village worth protecting. When I was younger, than was nothing here for me. I hated it. The people here hated me just as much I'm sure. However, ever slowly, people let me in. They gave me the chance to grow with them, not just as a ninja, but as a person, as a friend. I see the opportunity to settle down in Konoha, to protect Konoha, to make the future a Konoha a better Konoha."_

_Sasuke could only shake his head. That Naruto would always be a dreamer. Where was a place for him in all this? Sasuke truly could see all that Naruto said, for Naruto. But for him…_

_Naruto simply continued on, not letting Sasuke talk. "I see a place for us, in a non gay way I mean. I see a place where we can fight alongside each other. I see a place where our kids can grow up together, and have a better childhood than we ever did. And I wish you could just imagine things for once from my point of view, where every living moment wasn't just you chasing after Itachi…" Naruto whispered the last part, sounding not sure whether or not it would set him off._

_Sasuke only scoffed "Pointless, Impossible, this village would never take me."_

_"I would Sasuke, in a heartbeat. And I know your redemption is coming."_

_Whether or not Naruto knew it, the seed was planted._

_Sasuke Imagined what it would be like if he wasn't chasing after Itachi everyday in one form or another. If he could just, live his life._

_Frankly, he liked it a lot better than his current status in life._

_"Ugh, this talk is much much much much too serious. Seriously." Naruto complained, the distaste obvious from his tone. Sasuke had a very different opinion on the matter. He had a lot of his own considerations to take into account. When you're stuck alone in a cell, all you can really do is think. But he would save that for another time._

_"Exactly dead last." Sasuke shot back "Now what's this I hear about you being, well being Naruto to Tayuya. She sounded none too pleased." Needless to say, Naruto paled when Sasuke mentioned it._

_"I-"_

_"Just apologize." Naruto only looked confused at what Sasuke said. "Seriously, she can be stubborn and quick tempered. We've been talking for awhile now, so it would really be in your best interest if you just admitted you were wrong." Sasuke stated matter of factly. Naruto could only gape before leaping back and pointing his finger in anger at Sasuke_

_"Who are you and what have you done with Sasuke!" Naruto demanded "Why are you being so helpful!" Sasuke simply rolled his eyes._

_"Whatever. You're trying to help me out, so I suppose I can deign to help you out since you happen to believe in me so much." Sasuke countered._

_Naruto didn't buy it._

_"Real reason?"_

_"Tayuya won't stop bitching to me about you."_

_For the first time in a very long time, Naruto and Sasuke shared a heartfelt laugh._

* * *

"I'm just gonna say one thing, Gay dude."

"Whatever Tayuya, its part of the reason I went back to you." Naruto shot back. Tayuya only shrugged.

"A week longer and I would have made you crawl to me on your knees. Even if I had to use my flute on you. I would not let a little bitch like you get away with what you did." Tayuya reprimanded, waggling her finger at Naruto. Soon after she looked to Temari and they high fived each other.

"Why do I put up with this…" Naruto muttered, his shoulders slumping. He got a pat on the back from Shikamaru and Sasuke.

"She has her good points doesn't she?" Shikamaru supplied. Naruto quickly perked up.

He nodded in earnest. "Yeah! Like how her mouth-"

"Not going there Naruto, not going there." Sasuke quickly interrupted, not letting Naruto finish…whatever he was going to say. "That could be taken so many wrong ways dobe."

"But-"

"No, I agree with our favorite Uchiha here Naruto, no go on whatever about Tayuya's mouth makes you so happy." Shikamaru agreed. Naruto playful sulked for a little long before dragging the two ladies back into the group.

"You know, I actually wish you remember what you two did the night you made up…"Temari said, hoping someone would have a brilliant plan on how to find out.

"Sadly, that night was lost to the stars….or the booze in this case." Tayuya added wistfully. Shikamaru shook his head.

"I'm sure it wasn't that interesting.." he remarked, looking to Sasuke and Naruto for their thoughts.

"Yeah me too…" Naruto laughs nervously, hoping Sasuke would keep his mouth shut.

"Naruto remembers." And it was too much to hope for.

Tayuya leapt into action like a viper, her hands grasping Naruto's neck and throttling him soon after. "You told me you didn't remember!"

"He didn't, the fox did.." Tayuya's hands loosed around Naruto's neck at Sasuke's statement, but not enough that he could escape from the vice like grip. She looked to Naruto, her eyes boring into his skull.

"You are going to tell that story. You are going to tell it now."

Naruto could only nod with the little motion his head had.

* * *

__

_Naruto was pacing back and forth outside of Tayuya's apartment. Ever since he had talked to Sasuke the other day, he knew he needed to talk to her. With Akatsuki on the horizon, he knew he could be called away at any moment or have to go off on a long training session, possibly faraway, yet again to fight them off. After all, in the ninja world, you never know what can happen. Naruto wanted to live with no regrets, and his biggest regret right now was the fight between him and Tayuya._

_Naruto wasn't one to apologize, usually of course, but there's always exceptions. This happened to be one. A exception that he needed to rectify._

_'I also need to stop inner conversation and get this over and done with. ' He had thought of bringing flowers with him('bitches love flowers' was a wise proverb he thought he once heard, but he couldn't be too sure, especially when it came to Tayuya of all people. You could give her something nice and she might as well throw it in the trash for all she cared about it_

_Or burn it for that matter._

_"ALRIGHT! LETS DO THIS!" Naruto was ready to charge head on when a voice spoke up from behind him._

_"Naruto…why are you here?" Naruto froze on the spot and slowly turned around to face none other than Tayuya. She had her hair done up in two long pony tails and was wearing a dress. Needless to say, Naruto was quite surprised._

_What surprised him the most was the tone of voice she used. It lacked the anger that he was accustomed to and it instead held a air of carelessness about it. Being quick on his feet, Naruto opened his mouth to apologize._

_"Wow, you're looking great tonight…" came out instead. Naruto didn't mean to sound dreamy when he said it, he really didn't. It just came out that way._

_Tayuya only sighed. "Why are you here Naruto? If you have nothing useful to say please leave. I have a mission tomorrow that I-"_

_"I'm sorry." The apology was spoken very quickly. So quick that Tayuya almost didn't catch it._

_"Excuse me?"_

_"I'm…listen, I'm sorry Tayuya. I'm not very good at this stuff, but I want you to do what makes you happy and if being ninja makes you happy Ill stand by you. I just meant to say that at the time I was concerned about you." Naruto rushed his feelings out so quickly that Tayuya almost didn't catch it all._

_But she caught the important part, that he was sorry._

_Tayuya's reaction was very unexpected._

_Not really._

_"YOU MOTHERFUCKER!" shouted Tayuya, screeching at the top of her lungs. "What took you so damn long!"_

_"Well, its really complicated and no really worth hearing-"_

_"Your damn right I don't want to hear it! Cause it would probably be bullshit!"_

_"Hey, I'm here to apologize, why are you-" Naruto was cut off yet again by Tayuya hugging him._

_"I'll only say this once. Don't pull a stunt like that again. Its hard enough for me to bond with people at times, because of my abrasive nature. Don't shut me out like that again." Tayuya's voice was muffled slightly because of her position, but Naruto got the point._

_He decided to try to push his luck anyway_

_"Wow your acting quite out of character tonight." Naruto joked back. He hugged her back before she could use one of her arms to slug him. "Thanks Tayuya, I won't."_

_The moment was broken when Tayuya shoved him back. Naruto heard her mutter something about copping a feel, which was totally not true._

_"So bitch, you want to come in? I'm feeling generous tonight."_

_"Your kindness precedes you." Naruto responded sarcastically. Nevertheless "Sure…its been awhile since we've hung out." Tayuya smiled back in a way only Tayuya could, one that clearly would have been bad news if Naruto said no._

_"Whatever, just get your ass inside." Tayuya retorted, going ahead and unlocking the door. As he stepped inside, Naruto voiced the question that had been bugging him since he saw her._

_"So what's the dress for? I don't see you dress up very often." Truth be told, Naruto had trouble seeing Tayuya dress up. She looked nice, but it just seemed so….not her._

_"I went on a date" Tayuya stated, like it was nothing at all._

_A ugly feeling reared its head inside of Naruto._

_"Oh…How was it?"_

_"Boring."_

_The feeling was quickly gone, leaving Naruto confused on what it was. And much like Naruto does with many things he doesn't understand, he just forgets about them._

_"Poor Tayuya, going on boring dates." Naruto teased, choosing instead to go with a different approach. Tayuya simply flipped him off in response._

_"What about you, you fuck that Hyuuga yet? I bet you she'd give you a good time." Tayuya chewed out, looking none too pleased as she sat down at a table. Naruto remembered the reason they had their fight in the first place, and decided it would be in his best interest if he just answered._

_"Her names Hinata. I swear, if you said that to some random person they might think you were talking about some random Hyuuga."_

_"You mean they're not all the same? What a thought." Tayuya retorted. She kicked up her feet on the table and motioned for Naruto to sit. "Well, what's the story then?"_

_Naruto sighed and took a seat. "There really isn't one. I know who she is, but we rarely talk so it came as a big surprise that she had feelings-"_

_"Or you could just be really thick."_

_"-for me." Naruto said pointedly, steam rolling over what she said. "I'm not that thick headed am I?"_

_Tayuya only snorted in response. "Well, lucky you, I have something to cheer us up!"_

_"I don't really need cheering-" Tayuya waved Naruto's response off as she got up and made her way to her fridge. She took out a bottle that looked positively toxic._

_"TIME TO GET FUCKED UP!"_

_Naruto didn't quite remember how it happened, but sometime after Tayuya started drinking, she conned Naruto to having a drink with her. And then another. And then another._

_"We are sooooo fucked up." Tayuya tried to say from the ground, taking several tries. She had tried to convince Naruto she was a excellent table dancer in her drunken state. Naruto, being drunk himself, had made no move to stop her._

_Though her table dancing was more of unsteady swaying from left to right before she ended up falling over onto the floor. Naruto, being the gentlemen that she was, made a move to help her up, but was instead pulled down to the floor as well in his fucked up state._

_So here they were, sitting on the floor next to each other, totally sloshed._

_"I'm soooooo messed up Naru…Naruto!" Tayuya chirped happily, as she was swaying even sitting down. Naruto could only nod in agreement, too drunk to say anything. He came over to apologize, not get hammered._

_"I….I shuld…I shuld get holmes soon…"Naruto said drunkenly. He could barely pronounce his words at this point. Tayuya shook her head and tried to throw her arm around Naruto's shoulder._

_She ended up punching him in the face until she finally got it around him on her fourth try._

_"Just stay the Night! Its late, you can crash here!" Tayuya again was much too happy. Alcohol does strange things to people. "You know Naruto….That Hyuuga bitch is missing out."_

_"Eh…wha, what do you mean?"_

_Tayuya had a smile crawl on her face "I'd totally make out with you, specially if…if I confessed like blonde bitch did." Tayuya let her other hand wander up and down Naruto's stomach. "Hell, I'd even fuck you." Even in his non sober state, Naruto was shocked._

_"You'd…you'd sleep? With me?"_

_"Hell yeah bitch! I'd make you my bitch in bed!"_

_"That sounds like you'd do some crazy stuff to me…like..like…"Naruto's face screwed up in disgust. "Like you'd stick something in my butt." Naruto's words were slurred and hard to understand at best, but all the redhead heard was 'Tayuya's bad at sex'. She leapt up, as best she could, and pointed at Naruto._

_"You sayin' I ain't good at sex! I could rock your fucking world! 2 minutes with me on top of you and I…and I…" Tayuya couldn't even finish what she was saying. "I'm good at dancing!"_

_"Weren't we talking about sex?" Naruto questioned. Tayuya only shook her head and slowly started swaying back and forth. There was something extremely sensual about the way she was moving her hips to Naruto. He just couldn't take his eyes off them._

_"Whether its sexy time for Tayuya….or table dancing for Tayuya…its all in Tayuya's hips." Naruto was about to point that she was talking in third person but his breath got caught in his throat as Tayuya's swaying of her hips became more pronounced. Whether she knew it or not…it had become quite erotic. Tayuya started using her hands to run up her body and through her hair._

_Naruto swallowed and hopped Tayuya wouldn't notice the effect she was having on him._

_She did._

_She smiled, looking down lazily at Naruto. "What do we have here….someone's seems excited to see Tayuya dance…Well I can't blame them, I am amazing after all." She then began to sway her hips in a circular potion as she slowly circled Naruto before stopping again in front of him._

_"T-T-T-Tayuya, what are you…" Naruto stuttered out. Tayuya was obviously liking the affect she had on him because she leaned forward, giving him a nice display of her goods_

_"Hey Naruto…Lets…lesh…Le.." Tayuya couldn't quite finish what she was saying so she tried to stand up straight and stop dancing. "Lets have-" Tayuya was cutoff as her eyes rolled back into her head and she crashed into Naruto, their foreheads meeting each other in a resounding CRACK sound._

_Knocking both of them out, leaving the conversation to be forgotten for a very long time. Well, at least one creature would remember it._

* * *

"Wait, wait, wait…is that actually what happened?" Tayuya asked, sounding like she really didn't believe the whole deal. Naruto simply nodded, throwing his arm around Tayuya.

"The fox told me the whole thing. He was surprisingly helpful the next day when he was recounting events to me. He had a good laugh about that." Naruto explained. Tayuya simply scoffed.

"That bitch! I guess living in your stomach gets quite boring so it needs some entertainment. Maybe if you're lucky I'll give you some entertainment tonight when were-"

"Eww, eww, eww." Temari spat out. "Not on our wedding day. You can talk about your sex lives when I'm not around." Shikamaru nodded his head in agreement.

"With that being said, I'd like to make our own memories tonight. We should start preparing however. We've wasted enough time as is." SHikamaru nodded his head towards Tayuya, Naruto and Sasuke and started walking off to do wedding things,.

Temari only waved. "Stay out of trouble kids!" She chimed in before chasing after Shikamaru. Sasuke watched them go before shaking his head.

"I think they'll be really good for each other." Sasuke said, smile creeping onto his face. "I'm really happy for them." Sasuke looked over to the other two lovers and got the sight of them kissing. He simply quirked his eye brow, waiting for the two of them to finish.

When they did, Naruto just gave Sasuke the good guy pose. "What can I say, I was in the mood!" Tayuya looked annoyed but didn't say anything, for once.

"Of course Naruto, Just talking about sex gets you going, I should have known." Sasuke retorted, sarcasm dripping from his voice. Little did Sasuke know that he called the attention of a certain pervert in the area.

* * *

"My sex senses are tingling."

"Why must you be so damn creepy Jiraiya? Makes me wonder why I even bother hanging out with you. The Hokage is supposed to hold good company."

"I wouldn't call booze good company Tsunade." Said woman glared back at the toad sage before taking another drink from her glass.

The two were at a local bar that was called 'Heaven on Earth'. It was popular among the ninja clans because it was commissioned from the funds of the disbanded Root division. It stood as a symbol more than anything else, a symbol that Konoha would not be destroyed from within by rotten power.

Jiraiya glanced at Tsunade. She was the same as ever. Much like him though, she was getting older. Soon, the younger generation would need to take and lead the world to a better place. A place that he believed in but could never accomplish.

"Bah, I'm thinking too much." Jiraiya muttered before throwing his own shot back. He looked around and caught Sasuke talking to Tayuya and Naruto. He nudged Tsunade a few times.

"Wha, what is it Jiraiya, I'm busy drinking here!" she snapped. The pervert just pointed to the 3 ninja and Tsunade looked over at the group of friends. Taking another swig of her drink, she smiled. "Those three…they've done a lot for us you know."

Jiraiya snorted. "And which event are you talking about? There's so many to account for." It was Tsunade's turn to snort.

"More like 2 big events you damn perv."Tsunade added, swirling her drink a little. "I was right about her being important…just wrong about how big she would be."

"You? Wrong? What a surprise." Jiraiya's statement was rewarded with the Slug Princess smashing his head into the floor.

"Keep your damn mouth shut!" Tsunade spat, not happy with Jiraiya's words. She sighed before helping him back up. "Sorry, old habits die hard. I often forget your not the same as you once were." Tsunade grumbled, propping Jiraiya up. He nodded in response.

"I'm alive though right? By some miraculous chance. I mean-" Jiraiya was cut off by Tsunade's hand covering his mouth.

"I almost lost you then Jiraiya…I don't like thinking about how close you actually came dying." The slug Sannin said solemnly, swirling her drink around.

Jiraiya nodded. "I guess I should thank you and Sasuke first and foremost then. Not being an active ninja does have its perks you know. I-"

"Can it Jiraiya." Tsunade shot back, not ready to hear another one of his research speeches. Especially when he might be researching her. Tsunade shuddered at the thought Her musings were cut off as Jiraiya asked a question.

"What made you send him anyway?"

"Honestly? I blame Naruto." Jiraiya nodded his head sagely.

"Naruto is always a good scape goat."

"No.."Tsunade paused, simply for dramatic effect. "He gave me the idea in the first place."

"Oh ho? Did he now? I'd like to hear about this Tsunade. Sounds….kinky. What way did the young Uzumaki use to woo-" Tsunade's forehead pulsed with anger as she did her best to ignore Jiraiya's leechous thoughts. She quickly thought of a plan and put it into action.

"Hey, Brat! Come over here, its story time!"

**Authors Note:**

HOOOOOOOLY SHIT. I can't believe I came back to this. Honestly, I have had a revive in Naruto for some strange reason. Which leaves me with a lot of questions that I need you guys to help me with.

Should I reboot this story? Frankly A lot has changed over the past 4 years both as a writer and the Naruto Storyline. I'm wondering if it would just be easier for me to do this.

Should I release shorter chapters? By releasing shorter chapters I will probably update more often, if I get in a update schedule and it would probably make it easier for me to keep them coming but the chapters will probably come across as less refined.

I also need a Beta super bad. This story is littered with grammer mistakes and spelling errors that need to be rectified which is another reason to reboot this story. SO seriously, I need advice, both from new and old readers so please please help me. Send me a message or leave what you think I should do in a review.

Also, if anyone would not mind betaing for me please send me a message. You can get a free preview of next chapter if you do so! So lets me know plox.


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